Fusible - Just a little more than a week ago, in a post on this blog I asked the question whether Microsoft would broker a deal for the domain name Halo4.com, after Microsoft had revealed Halo 4 at E3 without owning the domain.
The FTC has resumed its administrative case against the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft after having temporarily paused it in July.
The FTC will continue its case 21 days after the 9th Circuit ruling on the FTC's appeal, which will likely pass.
There is no preliminary injunction stopping the merger from happening, meaning Microsoft can go ahead with the acquisition, however the FTC can still break them up if they win the case.
It's a big if, especially since that would have to go through three degrees of judgment before it becomes effective. The chance of such a decision surviving the Supreme Court is basically zero.
What they're doing now is basically wasting taxpayer money in the hope that the loss will push congress to give them more powers so that they're less likely to lose in future cases.
I think it's pretty clear the FTC isn't seeking to waste taxpayer money, considering they've also recently started a similar antitrust court case against Amazon. Too much corporate consolidation is harmful to the industry as you can see with what's going on with Embracer Group shutting down studios they bought, and while it's fair to also not approve of Sony acquisitions (and I would agree), it's impossible to find a parallel on the same scale as what Microsoft is attempting.
They have lost. They know it. We know it. Everyone knows it.
Two courts have already found their arguments lacking and that was before Microsoft pulled the rug completely from the cloud part of the case by selling the rights to Ubisoft.
Whatever the administrative judge decides will
1: be too late. The acquisition is closing as soon as the CMA gives its final approval next week.
2: Useless, as seeking a divestiture would have to go through courts that have already decided against the FTC and have absolutely no reason to change their mind.
So yes. They're literally wasting money and resources, and forcing the companies involved to do the same.
***They have lost. They know it. We know it. Everyone knows it. ***
No, not really. They can still require concessions similar to the CMA to make it happen.
@christopher. No they can't. The acquisition will have long closed by when they get around to it.
Yall start throwing around the 'shilling' word when arguments start to go over your head or you just simply don't know what you're talking about.
Abriael, just because the merger can continue based on a judge's decision doesn't mean it still can't be stopped. I told you before that even the FTC wasn't done and could do more and you said I was wrong. I'm not. I'm also not wrong about this. This is from corporate lawyers familiar with the FTC. Having said that, it is not very likely the FTC will win still, but they do have that ability. They for sure are not out of the game.
There's a difference between random people on the Internet saying it's a done deal and the FTC actually closing out the case. The FTC isn't done yet.
Abriael just destroying everyone in these comments and then all the fanboys who don't like the truth click downvote. The N4G community doesn't represent anything other than Sony fanboys and little else.
Something are governments great at doing. A bet any competent ceo could go to any government organization and pull an Elon firing 80% of the staff and actually improve the service
Abriael, no they can still. Demand concession even after it's closed. Do some. Research bud. It's can be along the lines of,... We have no choice to but to break apart the company, unless you sell blah blah to blah etc.
This is. Common practise. Stop trying to sound like. You know. Everything, you know nothing. Do I think it's a waste of money, No, it's never wasted if your trying to stop corporations become all powerful and influencing the market. NO CHOICE, is bad for everyone. If Sony and Nintendo stopped gaming tomorrow, gamepass would be 60 quid a month before December.
Man that was painful to read, pretty sure your not using correct punctuation
Esherwood, when you make comments like this, and you haven't checked your own previous comment to this one..... Well what can we say about a difficult read loooool.
P. S. You missed the . In your comment too :).
So they're going to hold a case AFTER Activision has joined Microsoft? This is a gross waste of taxpayer money.
Just so you know, they do have the task of breaking up companies as well. I mean, you can have your opinion on this being a waste of taxpayer money, but the logic that it is because it's after the merger isn't good logic on why this shouldn't continue. If that were true, then there would never be any case for breaking up companies to begin with.
Dude, it's over. Sometimes you just have to take a L and move on. This deal is gonna happen.
***Curious, so when does it become a waste of tax payers money? ***
That's a really subjective metric to be honest. It depends on economic and political views.
For anyone responding to me that the FTC isn't involved in breaking up companies, please let me know what other government body there is that handles anti-monopoly and anti-competitive measures and why aren't they investigating this measure? Let alone the fact that the FTC are the lawyers who go to court on behalf of these measures, it's there another group who does that? Do people think all the evidence needed to carry this stuff through the courts pops out of thin air? They just wait on a group of citizens to make it all happen? If it's not the FTC doing all the work, who is it? It's definitely not the judges creating all that evidence.
someone should go make a halo 5, 6 site so they can make some money when microsoft wants to buy it.
this is non news
Hardly news. Just a pathetic attempt from a loser site to get hits. Who has ever heard of fusible.com anyway? It's common place for domain names to be bought by developers and publishers for their upcoming games.