The United States Federal Trade Commission did not sit back after the conclusion of the agreement between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard: it intends to appeal the decision of European regulators, based on an evaluation of the corporation’s agreement with the French intermediary Ubisoft.
On Friday, October 13, the long-awaited closing of the $69 billion deal between the Xbox maker and the author of Call of Duty took place. This merger, the largest in the history of the gaming industry, which caused a lot of controversy in the context of antitrust policy, was only possible on the condition that the rights to broadcast games from Activision were transferred to Ubisoft.
It is this agreement between Ubisoft and Microsoft that the US Federal Trade Commission intends to “evaluate.” The appeals court hearing, where the FTC will attempt to challenge the settlement, is scheduled for December 6.
“The new agreement between Microsoft and Activision involving Ubisoft introduces a completely new aspect of the merger that will affect American consumers, and the FTC will evaluate it as part of its ongoing administrative proceedings,” said Commission spokeswoman Victoria Graham, cited by Reuters. “The FTC continues to believe that this transaction represents a threat to competition.”
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
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