Last week, Microsoft emerged victorious in the U.S. court against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and their objections to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Following that, the FTC filed an appeal to the appellate court. The appeal came at the 11th hour as a decision had to be made before the weekend.
It is Saturday today, and during Friday, the appellate court simply rejected the FTC’s appeal. This means that the path is now clear from the American side to proceed with the deal.
It is a major victory for Microsoft, but the deal is not completely finalized yet, and there is still one obstacle remaining before Microsoft can pop the champagne. As known, the UK and their Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have not approved the deal due to concerns that it would make Microsoft overly dominant in its cloud services. However, there is speculation that Microsoft will react to this by selling some of its cloud-based rights to align with the CMA’s requirements.
The drama continues!
