According to a report from Political, The Federal Trade Commission of the United States (FTC) would be putting together a legal case to try to block the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned source is not the only one with this information, since in recent days The New York Times He also pointed out that everything points to the initiation of a lawsuit by the US government agency.
Proposals to acquire companies come up all the time; what is not normal is that the FTC intervenes legally to block them. If the information of Political Y The New York Times is accurate, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard would be in jeopardy. It would also be the organization’s biggest legal battle under the leadership of Chair Lina Khan, who as soon as she took office made it clear that she would not allow the excessive growth of the bigtech. This, then, would be a forceful step to demonstrate it.
Be careful, the above is not a confirmation that the Activision purchase has collapsed. In fact, there are still chances that Microsoft will make it happen. What does change, and significantly, is that those of Redmond would have to defend themselves in a fairly complex legal process. The parties involved will have to present sufficient evidence to support their positions.
On one hand, the FTC would expose how Activision Blizzard’s change of ownership jeopardizes competition in the video game industry. Microsoft, for its part, would defend itself by explaining how its proposal is beneficial to the market beyond its individual interests. The problem for those led by Satya Nadella is that the FTC, like European regulators, have many doubts regarding the purchase.
Another important point that should be clarified is that, at the moment, the FTC has not yet formally presented any legal obstacles. Before any movement, agency commissioners must vote in favor of the lawsuit and even talk with the companies’ lawyers.
In addition, the commission’s investigation is still ongoing and is about to come to fruition. Nevertheless, Political warns that FTC officials clearly do not trust the arguments put forth by Microsoft and Activision. The final results of the same could be made public during December; a month that would also be key to find out if, indeed, they intend to proceed through legal channels to block the purchase.
The biggest concern that the FTC has, always according to the aforementioned media, is whether the purchase of Activision would give Microsoft an unfair advantage in the video game market.
Sony, the biggest opposition to the purchase of Activision
Sony, Microsoft’s main rival in the sector, has also expressed its concern about the purchase. Much of the complaints from the Japanese focus on the future of call of duty, by far Activision’s most popular and fruitful franchise. Sony considers that, under the umbrella of those of Redmond, the shooter could be made exclusive to Xbox; or, be available through Xbox Game Pass.
Either case would cause a good number of consumers to make the leap towards the green brand. Sony has insisted that neither they nor any other company in the industry has a game capable of competing with you for you. Call of Duty.
“Gamers choose their platform to play based on price, technical features, and the types of games available. The available content is the main factor for the player to choose a platform. Other than Activision, there are few developers/publishers capable of producing AAA games, such as EA (FIFA), Take-Two/Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto) and Epic Games (Fortnite). These games tend to be long-running franchises with big budgets, multi-year development cycles, and a very supportive following,” Sony commented in early August, adding:
“Despite all of that, Sony believes that none of these developers could create a franchise to rival call of duty from Activision, which stands as a category of games on its own. call of duty it is so popular that it influences the console choice of users. In fact, their network of loyal users is so entrenched that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, they wouldn’t be able to create a rival.”
Sony.
We do not know what the outcome of this story will be, what is a fact is that a new novel is approaching in the sector Big Tech. And be careful, because this tense situation could also be replicated in the old continent. Both the The European Union and the UK regulator have very similar concerns to those of the FTC.. A few months ago we took it for granted that there would be no problem for Microsoft to close the purchase of Activision, but now we can no longer say the same…
