The biggest takeaways from Microsofts courtroom showdown with the FTC over Activision Blizzard

▤ Summary

Microsoft and its current major acquisition target, video game publisher Activision Blizzard , have wrapped up their five days in court in San Francisco as the Federal Trade Commission sought to stop the deal from closing, but not without several fascinating facts coming to light. The FTC had originally planned to bring its case against the deal before an administrative law judge in August but then opted to seek a preliminary injunction in federal court as the agency became worried that Microsoft would try to close, even though some jurisdictions had not cleared the purchase. Microsoft considered several other companies before choosing to buy Activision Blizzard, including FarmVille publisher Zynga, Pokemon Go developer Niantic and Japanese digital entertainment mainstays Sega Sammy and Square Enix, according to testimony and documents released in the case. In early 2022, two days after Microsoft announced its plan to buy Activision Blizzard, Ryan wrote in an email to another executive that he was "pretty sure" Call of Duty would be available on PlayStation consoles for many years. When an FTC lawyer asked Kotick if Activision Blizzard would produce a Call of Duty game for a future Nintendo console, he said, "We missed out on the opportunity for the past generation of Switch, so I would like to think we would be able to do that, but wed have to look."

▦ Linked Companies

Activision Blizzard

$1B+