According to a press release on GlobeNewswire, Nasdaq announced that The Trade Desk, Inc. would join the Nasdaq-100 index as a replacement for Activision Blizzard, Inc.and abk would be removed from the list before the market opens on Monday, July 17. The elimination of Activision Blizzard of the Nasdaq-100 index could be interpreted as the company’s preparation to close its merger agreement with Xbox.
The announcement of the departure of abk de la Bolsa arrives just after the FTC will file an appeal of Judge Jacqueline Corley’s refusal to issue a preliminary order to halt the closing of the acquisition. Currently, a temporary restraining order (TRO) is keeping the agreement on hold while court proceedings take place, but the TRO is scheduled to expire on Friday. With ORT out of the way, the only thing standing in the way of Microsoft and abk to complete the acquisition is a decision on appeal from the 9th Circuit Court and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Regarding the appeal of the FTCVice President and President of MicrosoftBrad Smith said:
“The district court decision makes it clear that this acquisition is beneficial to both competition and consumers. We are disappointed that the FTC continue to pursue a clearly weak case, and we will oppose any further effort to delay the possibility of moving forward.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with CNBC, Bobby Kotick expressed his opinion that an appeal of the decision by the FTC it would be a waste of taxpayer money.
The request to remove abk of the stock market could indicate that both the leadership of Microsoft like Activision Blizzard feel confident enough that the 9th Circuit Court will not reverse Judge Corley’s decision and award the FTC the court order. Therefore, the two corporations may be taking the first necessary steps to close the deal as soon as the TRO expires. However, the closure would take place despite the rejection of the agreement by the CMA.
After Judge Corley refused to grant the FTC a court order, both CMA as Microsoft they agreed to stay their appeals to the UK Court in an attempt to reach an out-of-court settlement. Microsoft has agreed to make small divestments (probably in the cloud gaming sector, where the CMA expressed concerns) to push the deal forward, but the CMA it has said that any such move would require restarting the regulatory process from the beginning with a new investigation.
Despite any perceived progress, it looks like it’s going to be a long week of watching stock markets and court action as we wait to see how things play out. The current agreement negotiated between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard expires on July 18, and both the FTC as the CMA they seem willing to play the game of delaying the process as long as possible in order to block the merger. Whether this strategy is successful or not remains to be seen.
Via: windows central
Editor’s note: The drama wants to get new but the fact that these actions are being taken on the stock market takes everything for granted. In this case I think Bobby Kotick is right.
#Activision #Blizzard #withdraws #stock #market #Atomix