Microsoft-Activision Acquisition Clears Another Hurdle As FTC's Appeal To Block The Deal Falls Through

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal on Friday denied the Federal Trade Commission's appeal to block the impending acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc. ATVI by Microsoft Corp. MSFT, Bloomberg reported.

The appeals court's ruling is a setback for FTC Chair Lina Khan, who opposed the deal on the grounds that the proposed acquisition would result in Microsoft withholding Activision's most popular games from rival consoles or services.

The deal is now all but through, although the U.K. Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) has a hearing scheduled for July 17 to discuss the request from the two companies to pause a challenge to the deal in the U.K.

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After initial opposition from the CMA, which took exception to the potential monopoly in the cloud gaming market, Microsoft reportedly said it would sell its cloud-based market rights for games in the U.K.

The U.K. antitrust watchdog has set an Aug. 29 deadline to issue a final order.

Following the rejection of FTC’s appeal, Activision shares traded 3.36% higher at $93.10 in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro data. Microsoft gained 0.51% to $346.99.

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