The fate of what could be the priciest merger in tech industry history will soon be in the hands of a federal judge who must decide whether to stop Microsoft from closing its deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard.
Federal antitrust enforcers have sued to block the $69 billion acquisition that they say will harm competition between Microsoft and gaming industry competitors such as Sony and Nintendo.
Microsoft has largely had the upper hand in the court proceedings that are scheduled to end Thursday,and other executives, including longtime Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, to testify in favor of the merger. “The relief the FTC seeks is not only unprecedented but deal-killing,” said Microsoft's lead attorney, Beth Wilkinson, in a final written defense filed Thursday.
Sony, the deal's most vocal opponent in the game industry, has told regulators that it fears Microsoft will deprive its dominant PlayStation game console of popular Activision franchises such as Call of Duty or offer a subpar version of those titles to drive gamers to desert PlayStation for Microsoft's Xbox system.
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