FTC loses appeals court bid to temporarily block Microsoft-Activision deal

In a triumph for Microsoft, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit precocious connected Friday denied the Federal Trade Commission's entreaty of a judge's determination that would person stopped the bundle shaper from completing its $68.7 cardinal acquisition of video crippled steadfast Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft is inactive moving to resoluteness concerns astir the transaction from the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority.

A national justice successful San Francisco, aft 5 days of tribunal hearings, ruled against the FTC connected Tuesday, and the national bureau filed its appeal connected Wednesday.

The FTC archetypal sued to artifact the acquisition last December, then filed for an exigency injunction last period up of the deal's July 18 deadline. The FTC has argued that the transaction was anti-competitive due to the fact that Microsoft mightiness marque immoderate of its games exclusive to its ain Xbox crippled consoles oregon diminish the acquisition of Activision games specified arsenic the fashionable Call of Duty titles connected rival services should the woody close. Microsoft has said it would alternatively marque the games much wide available.

FTC and Microsoft representatives did not instantly respond to requests for comment.

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