U.S. Court Dismisses FTC Appeal Against Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

So, get this, the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals just tossed out a case by the FTC against Microsoft’s whole Activision Blizzard buyout thing. Wild, right?

Okay, so here’s the deal. Judge Daniel P Collins said something like, “FTC didn’t really prove Microsoft was gonna yank Call of Duty from other gaming systems.” Which, honestly, was the backbone of the FTC’s argument. And guess what? The appeals court was all like, “Yeah, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley had it right last year when she stopped the FTC from messing with the deal.”

Collins basically scribbled down a fancy note—and I’m paraphrasing here—that the district court knew what was up legally and wasn’t just shooting in the dark with its decisions. The FTC, poor guys, didn’t really drop any bombshell questions about whether Microsoft’s merging plans would wipe out competition in certain markets.

Microsoft spilled the beans about wanting Activision Blizzard back in 2022, right? And then, bam! A legal storm of antitrust cases hit them globally. All because of Call of Duty and the Xbox’s cloud stuff. The FTC was sweating over a possible monopoly here.

And—drumroll—the deal officially got the green light in 2023. Crazy times in the gaming world, huh?