FTC suspends administrative challenge to Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal

While Microsoft sent its final submission to the Consumer Markets Authority in the UK regarding its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, another regular has approved the deal. New Zealand’s Commerce Commission announced its approval, noting its focus on “the importance of Activision games (such as Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft) to New Zealand gamers.”

One more country has approved Microsoft's mega purchase, leaving only one more pending outside of the UK's roadblock.

New Zealand has become the latest company to approve Microsoft‘s impending purchase of Activision Blizzard.

With the US Federal Trade Commission’s request for an injunction on the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard denied, approval from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the only obstacle left. The latter initially denied the deal, with an appeal set to occur on July 28th, but the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) provided two months for both parties to resolve the same.

Following victories over the FTC in the United States and other approvals from regulatory bodies in the EU and other locations, Microsoft is trying to convince the UK Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA ) to change its mind and approve the company’s deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. In an unusual step, the CMA is requesting new comments on the deal and will consider them ahead of its final order due next month.

Microsoft has submitted a material changes of circumstances document to the UK's regulator which stands opposed to its $68.7bn Activision Blizzard acquisition, urging it to drop its block of the deal.

Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal is back in the hands of Britain's antitrust regulator after an appeals court granted an adjournment, and the grounds for why the UK should reconsider its block on the US software giant's takeover were published.

After recent court losses preventing the agency from preventing Microsoft’s deal to acquire Activision Blizzard from closing, the United States Federal Trade Commission has suspended its internal administrative challenge to the deal. A hearing was set to begin in early August if the process were to continue at this time.

As Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard edges closer to its long overdue completion, discussions about whether a deal of this scale and nature is ultimately going to benefit the industry or just Microsoft itself continue to rage on, but it seems another major player in the industry is, at the very least, all for it.

The Microsoft/Activision Blizzard merger is closer than ever to fruition. Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court has denied, in the person of Justice Elena Kagan, the request filed by a group of gamers for an emergency injunction to block the deal. Not that such a request was reasonably likely to be granted, especially after the Federal Trade Commission was turned down.

The US Federal Trade Commission official on Thursday withdrew the agency's case before an in-house judge that sought to block Microsoft's $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,66,200 crore) acquisition of game-maker Activision.

Kotick discussed the deal in a recent interview.