FTC Takes Case Against Microsoft-Activision Merger to Federal Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reportedly has filed an injunction to stop Microsoft from completing their planned $69 billion takeover of video game maker Activision Blizzard. Public Citizen has opposed the deal since it was announced. Matt Kent, competition policy advocate for Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“The FTC is taking the necessary steps to protect the public from this anti-consumer deal. Although the agency has already used its authority to block the merger through administrative proceedings, Microsoft is pushing to culminate the purchase of Activision before the agency can finish its process. By filing in federal court to enjoin the transaction, the FTC is showing that it won’t back down in the face of Microsoft’s escalatory tactics.
“The proposed deal raises too many red flags to proceed, especially considering that Microsoft is already operating in several concentrated sectors of the economy including consumer electronics, cloud computing, software development, hardware development, internet search, social networking, virtual reality, and video gaming.”
###