Microsoft announced it would acquire Activision Blizzard, a video game company and developer of the Call of Duty franchise, on Jan. 18, 2022. Over one year later, the $69 billion deal is awaiting regulatory approval from antitrust authorities who are too concerned about rivals.
In an effort to block the acquisition, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint late last year. Regulators argue that Microsoft has a history of withholding content from competitors and warn the acquisition will adversely affect the “new, burgeoning markets, including high-performance consoles, multi-game content library subscription services, and cloud gaming subscription services.”
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But these concerns are pure conjecture. Microsoft President Brad Smith has rebuffed these claims, writing that the company has consistently prioritized “access to key technologies for competing
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