FTC Withdraws from Proceedings Against Microsoft and Activision Blizzard

The US Federal Trade Commission has withdrawn its proceedings against Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. According to IGN, the FTC responded to Microsoft’s motion to withdraw from the recent proceedings with no objections, essentially giving Microsoft the green light to go ahead with its $69 billion acquisition.

This follows a recent report that revealed that both Microsoft as well as Activision Blizzard were asking the internal judge to withdraw the case brought against them by the FTC, stating that opposition to the merger goes against both corporate as well as consumer interests.

The acquisition was slated to be completed before the deadline of July 18, but the two companies have since announced that an agreement has been reached that extends the deadline to October 18. This extension likely also helps Microsoft in its ongoing negotiations with the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority.

The CMA itself had recently announced that it had pushed back the deadline for its final decision surrounding the acquisition to August 29, following which the regulator and Microsoft were granted a two month extension by the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal to resolve the deal.