According to Bloomberg sources, apparently the Federal Trade Commission of the United States after the bitter defeats in court is willing to suspend the trial in its domestic court against theacquisition of Activision Blizzard potentially paving the way for negotiations with Microsoft.
If so, it would be another victory for the Redmond-based company, which in any case seems to already have the road paved to conclude the operation by October 18, 2023, the new deadline agreed with ABK, or already immediately after the final verdict of the English CMA, which will arrive no later than August 29.
Microsoft has asked for the case to 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 battle or accept the company’s request.
According to Bloomberg sources, in reality it would be the agency’s rules that forced the FTC to definitively abandon the case after losing the case for the preliminary injunction that should have wrecked the maneuver, as well as the appeal to the verdict of the same.
Once the case is dropped, Microsoft and Activision could try to convince the FTC commissioners to accept an agreement or to give up their opposition altogether. In the case of the first option we assume that a “courtesy agreement” is to be expected, given that US antitrust can do virtually nothing to effectively obstruct the takeover and therefore would have little leverage in a negotiation with either side.
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