Microsoft said on Thursday that its $69 billion offer to buy Activision Blizzard, maker of “Call of Duty”, would benefit gamers and game companies. The company filed the argument in a lawsuit aimed at convincing a U.S. Federal Trade Commission judge to allow the deal to go ahead, after FTC commissioners said the merger would harm competition in the gaming industry in a complaint this month. month intended to block the agreement.
In a complaint on Dec. 8, the FTC said its concern was that popular Activision games, including “World of Warcraft” and “Diablo,” would no longer be offered on devices that rival Microsoft’s Xbox. A hearing before an administrative law judge has been scheduled for August 2023.
Microsoft chairman Brad Smith said in mid-December that the company had offered to sign a legally binding consent decree with the FTC to provide “Call of Duty” games to rivals, including Sony and others, for a decade. .
Smith said in a statement this week that he is still confident in the company’s legal case but remains “committed to creative solutions with regulators.” Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement on Thursday that he believes the companies will win if there is a legal fight with the trade commission.
The Biden administration has taken a more aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement. The US Department of Justice recently halted a $2.2 billion merger between Penguin Random House, the world’s largest book publisher, and smaller US rival Simon & Schuster.
The Microsoft deal is also facing problems outside the United States, with the European Union saying it will decide by March 23, 2023 whether to authorize or block the deal between the two companies.
This article used as a source the writing for the site CNN Business.
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