The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sued to block Microsoft from completing its deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard, the latest antitrust challenge to the proposed merger but one that could hasten a conclusion to the drawn-out dispute.
The FTC's Monday filing in a San Francisco federal court seeks a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop Microsoft's US$69 billion purchase of the California company behind hit games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush.Microsoft, maker of the Xbox game system, has been struggling to win worldwide approval for the deal with just over a month before the deadline to close it, according to the contract it signed with Activision.
The FTC already took Microsoft to court last year to block the merger, but that case was brought to the U.S. agency's in-house judge in a trial set to start on Aug. 2. That administrative process didn't preclude the parties from closing the deal. "Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have represented in the past that they cannot close their deal due to antitrust reviews of the transaction in other jurisdictions," the FTC said in a statement Monday. "But Microsoft and Activision have not provided assurances that they will maintain that position.
European regulators representing the 27-nation bloc approved the deal last month on condition that Microsoft make some promises meant to boost competition in the cloud-based gaming market. A number of other countries, including China, Japan, Brazil and South Korea, have also approved it.
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