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 acquisition of game-maker Activision.
The agency has been pursuing a two-pronged attack against
the proposed transaction. One was in district court, which refused last week to
slap a preliminary injunction on the proposed transaction. An appeals court
also turned down a request for the deal to be paused.
The second was before an FTC administrative law judge, where
the deal was set to go to trial on August 2. It was this attack that the agency
put on hold on Thursday, in an order made by FTC Secretary April Tabor.
Microsoft and Activision argued in a motion posted to the
FTC's website on Wednesday that withdrawing the agency's case was both
mandatory and in the public interest.
"The district court had a full opportunity to consider
the FTC's claims and found that the Commission was unlikely to succeed on the
merits of those claims for multiple, independently sufficient reasons,"
the companies said in their motion.
Activision Blizzard said on Wednesday it had extended the
deadline for the close of its takeover by Microsoft to October 18 as the
companies work to secure approval from the United Kingdom's antitrust
authority.
The Call of Duty publisher said the companies also agreed to
increase the deal termination fee to $3.5 billion from $3 billion if it does not close by August 29. The fee
will further rise to $4.5 billion after September 15.
Earlier this week, Microsoft's appeal against Britain's
block on its takeover of Activision was formally paused by a London tribunal,
to give the parties more time to resolve the dispute. Microsoft, Activision,
and Britain's competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority
(CMA), had all asked for a two-month stay of the case after the CMA said it
would consider a modified deal put forward by Microsoft. © Reuters
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