As a certain Marvel Comics character once said, “We are in the endgame now.” The US Federal Trade Commission’s request for injunctive relief against Microsoft has been denied by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today, which could mean the quest by the company to buy Activision Blizzard may finally be completed soon.
The court’s ruling (via The Verge) was welcomed by Microsoft president Brad Smith. In a statement, he said:
We appreciate the Ninth Circuit’s swift response denying the FTC’s motion to further delay the deal. This brings us another step closer to the finish line in this marathon of global regulatory reviews.
The big question is just how close is Microsoft to reaching that finish line. Right now, the company has to complete the deal to purchase Activision Blizzard by Tuesday, July 18. Otherwise, it might have to pay a $3 billion fee to Activision Blizzard and walk away from the purchase.
There’s still the matter of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, which blocked the $69 billion deal in late April. Since then, Microsoft has reportedly been trying to negotiate with the CMA to revamp their proposed merger.
This week, a new report claimed Microsoft might be willing to sell off at least part of their cloud gaming business to a third party in the UK, in order to appease the CMA. The regulator blocked the deal because it felt Microsoft would have an unfair advantage in the cloud gaming space if it were able to put Activision Blizzard games on its Xbox Cloud Gaming service.
Today, the CMA revealed it would extend the investigation of Microsoft’s deal from July 18 to August 29. However, it added that it “aims to discharge its duty as soon as possible and in advance of this date.”
It’s possible that Microsoft and the CMA could make an agreement that could allow Microsoft to officially close the deal to purchase Activision Blizzard and still have some time to iron out a deal with the CMA.