Another major obstacle for Microsoft and Activision Blizzard has arisen in the former’s bid to fully acquire the latter. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed an injunction to block the transaction from happening, or as they call it, is “temporary restraining order.” According to a statement made to IGN, an FTC spokesperson says that the filing is due to their concern that neither party would be able to maintain their position of antitrust reviews with their transactions. “In light of that, and public reporting that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are considering closing their deal imminently, we have filed a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent them from closing while review continues.”
Interestingly enough, both Microsoft and Activision are reacting rather positively to this situation. Microsoft’s Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith posted on Twitter that the FTC’s filing should “accelerate the decision-making process. This benefits everyone.” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick published an open letter to the company staff and to the public that this is a “welcome update and one that accelerates the legal process.” In other words, both parties are hoping in a legal sense that this injunction filing will somehow turn around the recent hurdles that they’ve been facing and allow them to accelerate the transaction and complete it sooner than later.
Perhaps the most arduous hurdle that they face is the UK Watchdog Committee, who officially blocked the acquisition back in April. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard were harshly critical of the committee’s decision and how they handled the process. In late 2022, the FTC sued Microsoft over the acquisition, which lead to Activision Blizzard giving their own take on it, as well as Microsoft actually subpoenaing Sony in defense against the suit. Ever since the deal was revealed in early 2022, the video game landscape has been on a roller coaster effect that is still being felt today. If Microsoft and Activision Blizzard want this to go through, it looks like they’re going to have to fight for it.