Microsoft Falls on Report FTC, and Not DoJ, Will Review Activision Deal
By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Microsoft stock (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell 1.5% on Tuesday after a Bloomberg report said the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) will go through Federal Trade Commission, an agency considered more aggressive in its scanning of deals.
The FTC and Department of Justice share responsibility for antitrust reviews of mergers and often thrash out agreements over a deal one will probe.
FTC Chair Lina Khan has long advocated for a tighter scrutiny of deals, particularly those involving the big tech. Under her leadership, two major takeovers the agency has attempted to block include Nvidia’s purchase of chip designer Arm and Lockheed Martin’s pursuit of Aerojet Rocketdyne.
According to reports, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) had earlier asked for Khan’s recusal from an antitrust case the FTC was pursuing against the social media giant.
Microsoft’s $68.7 billion buyout of videogame publisher Activision would bring the maker of Xbox consoles a vast library of popular franchises such as Warcraft, Diablo and Candy Crush. Both Microsoft and rival Sony (NYSE:SONY) have been Activision’s clients and it remains to be seen how Microsoft deals with Sony’s access to the publisher’s titles.
In a separate deal announced Monday, Sony is buying Bungie, a U.S. video game developer behind the popular Destiny and Halo franchises, for $3.6 billion.
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