(New York) The American competition authority, the FTC, has suspended its proceedings before the administrative justice against the takeover of the video game publisher Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, confirming its withdrawal after a series of legal setbacks.
In December 2022, the Federal Trade Commission seized the administrative tribunal attached to the authority to challenge the merger which would form the world’s third largest group in the video game sector.
She also filed a civil suit in federal court in California.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed the FTC’s request to suspend the transaction. According to Jacqueline Scott Corley, the agency “has not demonstrated that it was able to prove that this operation was likely to weaken competition in this industry”.
The regulator then appealed to a federal appeals court, which also found wrong.
On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who is reviewing the case on behalf of the nation’s highest court, denied a ban request submitted by players.
The administrative procedure remained concretely the last avenue of recourse to block this takeover of 75 billion dollars, announced in January.
According to a document filed Thursday evening in the file, the FTC requested the suspension of this procedure, which puts the case in parentheses on the administrative level. The agency can nevertheless choose to resume its action later.
Initially, the dispute was to be examined by an administrative judge during a hearing scheduled for August 2.
This is the first time since the beginning of the case that the FTC has backtracked.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard announced on Wednesday the postponement to October 18 of the deadline for the acquisition of the second by the first.
This delay gives Microsoft time to provide new guarantees to the British Competition Authority (CMA), which itself postponed the deadline for examining the file to August 29, after initially opposing this takeover.