Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard is the biggest proposed deal in video game history, but some notable outlets are questioning whether the deal will actually go through. A Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against the acquisition has turned into a major hurdle the company must overcome.
Business publication Seeking Alpha recently published an analysis suggesting that Microsoft should back out of the proposed merger, citing legal challenges and an uncertain economic outlook as key factors. Author JR Research also questioned Microsoft’s plan to compete with Google and Apple on the platform with a proposed “super app”. The author notes that the next few years in gaming are expected to be slow in terms of growth due to the impact of the pandemic on the industry.
The FTC’s case against the settlement is anything but straightforward, and its legal fate remains unclear. As a professor at Columbia Law School told the international newspaper Wall Street Journal, the FTC has a great burden to prove that the agreement is “anti-competitive”, especially since Activision Blizzard and Microsoft theoretically represent two different phases of video game production. model. That makes the deal a “vertical merger,” which US courts often give the green light.
However, regardless of the final fate of the deal in the courts, the lengthy legal process triggered by the FTC lawsuit endangered the deal by delaying it. While it seems unlikely that Microsoft will back down from this blockbuster purchase, at least at this early stage, there are certainly more hurdles in its path than many expected. In fact, Microsoft has stated that it has full confidence in its case.
This article is a translation of the writing by Steven T. Wright to the website GameSpot.
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