The takeover of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft may be historic and almost already recorded in the collective unconscious, but until June 2023 and the final end of this operation, a lot can still happen. Such a takeover is necessarily scrutinized very closely by regulatory bodies on the American market, and this time, the case will be judged by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), which is known to have a firm hand on this kind of subject.
Microsoft faces toughest body
Bloomberg tells us this by stating that the FTC will play a big role in the validation or not of this takeover, along with the Department of Justice. And that’s bad news for Microsoft, because when it announced the takeover of Activision/Blizzard, the FTC announced at the same time a strengthening of anti-trust laws in order to prevent excesses following major mergers such as this one. this.
And as much to say that the FTC is not really known for its lax side in this areasince the organization recently got in the way of Nvidia, which wanted to buy ARM, in order to prevent a lack of competition in the computer chip market.
This does not mean that the FTC will necessarily intervene in the takeover of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft, but the deal is now a little more uncertain.. The FTC will then investigate the case to see if Microsoft will create a monopoly or not (it was probably to reassure these organizations that Phil Spencer clarified the future of call of duty at PlayStation), and will make decisions accordingly.
Remember that if the deal does not go to the end, Microsoft will owe 3 billion dollars to Activision-Blizzard.