Microsoft said it closed a deal to acquire Activision in order to add mobile games — an area in which it has almost no presence. Activision owns King, maker of Candy Crush. Microsoft said the merger would catapult Microsoft into third place among global video game companies behind Tencent Holdings Ltd. Chinese, League of Legends publisher, and game console rival Sony Corp.
Activision rose as much as 6% on the news, and was trading up 4.4% at $86.31 at 11:08 a.m. in New York. Microsoft shares fell less than 1% to $330.06.
“We are grateful to the San Francisco court for this swift and comprehensive decision and hope other jurisdictions will continue to work towards a timely resolution,” said Brad Smith, President of Microsoft. “As we have consistently made clear throughout this process, we are committed to working creatively and collaboratively to address regulatory concerns.”
Activision said the deal would benefit both consumers and operators.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the merger “will enable competition rather than allow established market leaders to continue to dominate our rapidly growing industry.”
“We are disappointed with this outcome given the clear threat this merger poses to open up competition in cloud gaming, subscription services, and consoles. In the coming days we will announce our next steps to continue our fight to preserve competition and protect competition,” FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said in an email. consumers.”
In a decision, Scott Corley denied the FTC’s initial injunction, which had sought to block the deal on the grounds that it would harm the players. At a hearing in June, the Federal Trade Commission argued that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision would hurt competition because the combined company would have an incentive to withhold key titles, such as best-selling shooter Call of Duty, from competing consoles and subscription services.
The lawsuit was part of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lena Khan’s effort to aggressively police mergers, particularly those by the largest tech platforms. Since President Joe Biden appointed her to lead the agency in June 2021, the FTC has killed off mergers between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. and Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. In addition to Nvidia Corp.’s bid to buy SoftBank Group Corp.’s arm.
Microsoft’s frivolous mobile gaming presence will see a boost after the tech giant’s appearance at Activision Blizzard candy crush And Call of duty Moving. Mobile gaming is the fastest-growing sector of the gaming industry and is valued at nearly $92 billion — half of the global gaming market, according to the analytics firm. NewZoo.
However, critics have concerns that Microsoft will use its newfound clout to hurt rivals like Sony by reducing access to its blockbuster titles or publishing more games. Exclusively for Xbox and PC.