The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that it will be appealing Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley’s ruling in the high-profile FTC v. Microsoft court case. The Judge initially denied the FTC’s injunction, which allows Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard to close their acquisition deal prior to the July 18, 2023 deadline. In their appeal, the FTC has asked the Court to reconsider that decision.
For their part, Microsoft’s Brad Smith and Activision-Blizzard’s Lulu Cheng Meservey released the following statements to their respective Twitter accounts:
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), who originally blocked the deal, is currently in talks with Microsoft to restructure the deal to address their concerns, but noted in a statement to The Verge that these are “early discussions” and may “lead to a new merger investigation” there:
Whilst merging parties don’t have the opportunity to put forward new remedies once a final report has been issued, they can choose to restructure a deal, which can lead to a new merger investigation. Microsoft and Activision have indicated that they are considering how the transaction might be modified, and the CMA is prepared to engage with them on this basis. These discussions remain at an early stage and the nature and timing of next steps will be determined in due course. While both parties have requested a pause in Microsoft’s appeal to allow these discussions to take place, the CMA decision set out in its final report still stands.
[CMA to The Verge, July 12, 2023]
[CourtListener, Additional: Verge]
