Activision Blizzard: FTC ready to drop case and deal with Microsoft, according to Bloomberg

According to Bloomberg’s sources, it appears that Federal Trade Commission The United States after bitter defeats in court so ready Suspension of the trial in its domestic court against theActivision Blizzard acquisition It potentially paves the way for negotiations with Microsoft.

If so, it would be another victory for the Redmond-based company, which already appears to have a clear path to finalizing the process by October 18, 2023, the new deadline agreed with ABK, or already immediately after the final ruling by the English Capital Markets Authority, which will arrive no later than August 29.

Microsoft requested that the case be dropped

Yesterday, Microsoft asked the FTC to drop its case against the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which is currently scheduled for an internal trial on August 2nd. The US antitrust still has a few hours to decide whether to continue its fight or accept the company’s request.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, in fact, it would be the agency’s rules that forced the FTC to permanently abandon the case after losing the case for the initial injunction that should have destroyed the gambit, as well as an appeal of the ruling itself.

Once the case is dropped, Microsoft and Activision can try to convince the FTC commissioners to do so Accept agreement or abandon their opposition altogether. In the case of the first option, we assume that a “courtesy agreement” is to be expected, given that the US antitrust can do nothing to effectively block the takeover, and therefore would not have much leverage negotiating with either side.