It would seem as if the US Federal Trade Commission has read the suggested writing on the wall: The government body has officially withdrawn its August hearing with an administrative law judge, citing an earlier rule that was offered by Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard as cause to drop the challenge of the $69B merger between the two companies.
“The recent decision in the US and approvals in 40 countries all validate that the deal is good for competition, players, and the future of gaming,” a spokesperson for Acti-Blizz told Yahoo Finance. “We’re confident in our next steps and that our deal will quickly close.”
As The Verge notes, it is possible that the FTC could ask Microsoft for additional concessions in exchange for a stop on further legal action, and the government body is still reportedly continuing on with its appeal of an earlier injunction denial.
This now leaves the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority as the main hurdle for the acquisition. The CMA has since reopened the matter once more and aims to have a new provisional view of a restructured deal between the government body and Microsoft by August 7th. Provisions offered by Microsoft include commitments specifically targeting cloud gaming, like the signing of 10-year agreements for Activision games to stay on services including Nvidia, Boosteroid, and Ubitus, along with the establishment of a monitoring and enforcement regime.
