FTC Puts Challenge To Microsoft, Activision Deal On Hold

Well, well, this may be a story that is starting to come to a close. With the EU having already approved Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the two remaining hurdles Microsoft had to jump through were with the UK's CMA agency and the FTC here in the States. After a recent loss in court blocking a TRO to stop the deal from proceeding while the inquiry continues, the FTC made a bunch of noise about appealing that ruling and continuing forward with its own challenge in court. In the less than two weeks that has followed, several important things happened impacting the likely outcome of the regulatory challenges.

First, Sony ended up inking a similar 10 year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation hardware, just as other gaming platforms have. Shortly after that, the FTC announced it was putting its own administrative challenge to the deal on hold", paving the way for an eventual approval.

In light of all this, the FTC has put their own in-house administrative challenge on hold for the foreseeable future. After the court win and Sony giving in, there wasn't much to keep fighting against. The sale is almost certainly going to go through.

Despite win after win, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard announced this week that they are delaying the merger for another three months so they can get all of the details right. The new acquisition date is October 18.

Such a quick cutting of the bait sure does imply that the FTC no longer thinks this is a fight it can win. And Microsoft, especially after extending its deal deadline, can and will point to the non-active status of the FTC's inquiry as a reason it can consummate the deal.

Which leaves just the CMA standing in the way of this story coming to a close.

The main reason for the delay is the ongoing battle with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK. That regulatory body has not backed down and is currently trying to stop the deal. Both companies want to make sure they square that away first before moving forward.

This whole exercise has, frankly, been absurd. Microsoft has put on something of a master class in how to navigate regulatory agencies that supposedly are there not as bureaucratic noisemakers, but as parties chiefly interested in the long term health of competitive markets. The idea that a couple of deals that last a decade and a bunch of promises from a company like Microsoft were enough to get everyone but the CMA on board suggests the regulators, as per usual, lack any real teeth.