Filing: the US FTC revives its challenge against Microsoft's $69B acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a move which may seek to unwind the deal after it closes
- FTC administrative hearing won't derail deal from closing — Companies are likely to win UK regulatory approval for deal
Context & Ripple Effects
The FTC had already lost its bid for a preliminary injunction, with a court finding its harm theories unlikely to succeed, before pursuing an appeal of the ruling that cleared the transaction's path. Microsoft and the UK CMA then paused litigation to work on a restructured deal, while the FTC temporarily suspended its own in-house proceeding.
This filing restores the FTC's administrative case without necessarily preventing closing. It matters because the agency is preserving a route to challenge the transaction even as the companies move toward UK clearance.
First-order effects
- Microsoft and Activision can continue toward closing, but face a revived FTC administrative challenge that could seek relief after the deal is consummated.
- The FTC shifts from trying to stop the transaction before closing to maintaining an adjudicative path that could test whether post-close remedies are warranted.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft's integration planning carries added regulatory uncertainty: a later FTC outcome could affect how the combined business is operated, even if closing proceeds.
- The case keeps pressure on merger parties to treat negotiated restructuring as more than a closing condition; the earlier UK restructuring talks show how regulatory concerns can reshape transaction terms while litigation continues elsewhere.
Third-order effects
- If agencies increasingly pursue cases after courts decline to block closing, large technology mergers may face a longer period of post-close legal exposure rather than a single decisive pre-close review.
- The episode tests the practical limits of antitrust enforcement against platform acquisitions: courts' willingness to grant preliminary relief will continue to shape whether agencies can rely on administrative challenges after a deal closes.
The trend: Technology-merger enforcement is becoming a multi-forum, multi-stage process in which closing does not necessarily end regulatory risk.