Microsoft’s $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,66,800 crore) bid to acquire Activision Blizzard, maker of the popular Call of Duty series, hit a roadblock on Thursday after the US FTC sued to block the takeover deal. Brad Smith, the company’s president, tweeted on Thursday that the company would fight the FTC to complete the deal.
The Biden administration on Thursday moved to block Microsoft’s $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,66,800 crore) bid to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, throwing a stumbling block in front of the tech giant’s plans to rapidly expand its portfolio of popular games and catch up to bigger rivals.
Microsoft, which owns the Xbox console and game network platform, said in January 2022 that it would buy Activision for $68.7 billion (roughly Rs. 5,64,474 crore) in the biggest gaming industry deal in history.
Without Activision and its variety of games across mobile, consoles and PCs, Microsoft could struggle to attract users to its budding subscription service for accessing games. Drawing subscribers has become a priority for big tech companies as traditional growth sources such as ad sales become less reliable.
The US software company had said it wanted the deal to help it compete with gaming leaders Tencent and PlayStation owner Sony, which has criticised the deal.
But, in its complaint, the US Federal Trade Commission, which enforces antitrust law, said that Microsoft had a record of hoarding valuable gaming content.
“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition
. “Today, we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.
