Washington After about a year and a half, Microsoft has reached its goal of acquiring Activision Blizzard. After two defeats in court, the US antitrust authorities withdrew their lawsuit against the $ 69 billion deal in the video games industry on Thursday (local time).
The FTC had feared an adverse effect on competition. However, because Microsoft concluded long-term license agreements for the Activision classic game “Call of Duty” with competitors such as Sony and Nintendo, the courts did not follow this argument and rejected an application by the authority to block the takeover until the start of the main proceedings. This should have started on August 2nd.
The EU had previously approved the deal subject to conditions. The British competition authority CMA wants to review it again on the basis of further concessions and reconsider its previous veto.
More: Microsoft’s $69 billion takeover draws near