Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar feast will have to wait: the US federal commission holds back on the acquisition of Activision
Our big title from some time ago thundered arrogantly: “Microsoft acquires Activision, Blizzard and King”, and although the plans of the emerald-hued titan are still the same it is the American federal commission that is champing the brakes. The deal was previously expected to close by the end of the year. Now, with the latest update to the roadmap of Federal Trade Commission (abbreviated as FTC), the date (not yet definitive) to mark on the calendar slide to 2024. The latest case consultations on the matter won’t even begin until August 2, 2023, and will likely drag on for months to come.
How to delay the inevitable: The federal commission has decided, the synergy between Microsoft and Activision will wait
Specifically, the federal commission schedule has established that the final pre-consultation conference will not begin before first of August at one o’clock in the afternoon, Pacific time. This will translate for us into ten in the evening, according to our time zone. So what will we do in these months of unnerving waiting? Time will pass in the name of analysis for all the material to be examined, probably including evidence relating to the tabloid storm that has overwhelmed the systemic male chauvinism within the company.
Microsoft will likely have to wait longer than planned to acquire Activision Blizzard https://t.co/HEWVyohhdS
— GamesRadar+ (@GamesRadar) January 11, 2023
According to what was reported by the foreign sector press, it will therefore be the mere beginning of the acquisition process. So far the FTC has made no secret of its opposition to Microsoft’s proposal. At the beginning of last month, in fact, the commission has already declared its intention to block the negotiations as the merger would give the jade giant the right weapons for unfair competition against rivals Xbox and Game Pass. In response, Microsoft defined “unconstitutional” this position, before retracing his steps regarding his own. What is certain, at the moment, is that we’ll have it for a while.
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