The Federal Trade Commission of the United States (FTC, for its acronym in English) has communicated to the courts its decision to appeal the ruling of last Tuesday in which it is confirmed that Microsoft has the right to continue with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard . The purchase of the video game company by the technology giant is valued at 69,000 million dollars, about 62,745 million euros.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley ruled last week to dismiss the FTC’s complaints, finding that there is no evidence that Microsoft intends to remove the video game ‘Call of Duty’ from Sony PlayStation or that the merger will pose a significant problem for competition in this market.
For his part, Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, affirmed that Scott’s ruling in favor of his company shows that the purchase will be beneficial for both market agents and consumers. He also criticized the FTC’s performance, calling its appeal “demonstrably weak.”
The international market, divided
For its part, Activision defended that “the facts have not changed” and expressed confidence that the United States improved “among the 39 countries where the merger can be closed.”
The purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft has divided those responsible for Competition in the main economies, since the European Commission authorized the transaction with conditions last May, while the British CMA blocked the merger. In this regard, the British regulator excluded this Wednesday that it was willing to consider any proposal from Microsoft to restructure the transactions.
