After losing in court in the Meta and Within case, the FTC has thrown in the towel in administrative proceedings and has decided to stop pressing to avoid the purchase agreement. Something that is undoubtedly a great step in the process of buying Activision Blizzard, because it is likely that, in this second process, the competition regulatory body in the United States will follow the same cases. Months ago, the FTC decided to block the Meta purchase of Within, so that this second took the case to the Courts. Finally, the Federal Judges ruled in favor of Meta.
District Judge Edward Davila considered that, despite the fact that acts that could harm competition should be blocked, he understood that the FTC did not offer sufficient evidence to prove that the purchase of Within would harm the market. And now, judgment in hand, the FTC has decided to stop trying to block the purchase deal and go along with the acquisition of Within; something that, for some, gives clues to what will happen with Activision Blizzard.
The FTC will accept the Activision Blizzard settlement: it is happening with Google and Within:
As we can read on the Engadget website, the dispute over Within and Meta marks the first major setback for the FTC under the leadership of Lina Khan; She is the president who, let’s remember, she has been involved in some scandal and being the reason why another member of the FTC has resigned not too long ago. And now, as analyst Florian Mueller suggests on Twitter, this will be the same path as The FTC will follow in the case of Activision Blizzard and Microsoft.
The FTC loses the lawsuit against Meta for the purchase of Within. Does Microsoft have it won?
we are xbox.com
This (below) will also happen in the case of Microsoft-Activision Blizzard. The only questions that remain are (1) when the FTC will give up going forward and (2) if there will be agreement on remedies (usually there is). I doubt that the August trial will stand.” comment On twitter.
The truth is that, after the agreements with nintendo and nvidia, Microsoft has made sure to burn all the cartridges for regulatory bodies. Faced with accusations of making Call of Duty exclusive on consoles, Microsoft has confirmed its arrival at Nintendo and faced with accusations of obtaining an advantageous position in services, Microsoft has entered into an agreement to bring games to Nvidia’s streaming service. Now it only remains to see how the negotiations with the CMA progress this week.