The judge presiding over the FTC’s last-minute attempts to halt the signing of the acquisition deal between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard has denied the FTC’s appeal.
Tuesday, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the US District Court of Northern California denied the FTC’s request for an injunction to pause the signing of the deal, pending the FTC’s ongoing litigation to block the merger, which isn’t set to begin until August. Corley not only denied the request for the preliminary injunction but suggested that the FTC’s overall case is unconvincing and likely to fail and therefore could not be used as an impediment to the deal. And now, as of last night, the same judge has denied the FTC’s inevitable appeal.
As Bloomberg notes, the appeal now heads to the Ninth Circuit as the FTC pursues emergency action today for a “temporary pause” to delay the deal ahead of its deadline next week. Meanwhile, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which had also blocked the deal in the UK, has agreed to extend its consideration period for Microsoft’s latest submission to August 29th.
