Rich Polk/Getty Images Entertainment
The judge will now decide whether the FTC can ban Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT($69 billion acquisition of Activision)Nasdaq: ATVI) after the end of the five-day trial. activeion increased by 0.8% After trading hours.
FTC and Microsoft Attorneys (MSFT) made their closing arguments Thursday before US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco. The trial, which began last Thursday, included testimony from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as well as Activision (ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier this month filed a preliminary injunction to block the takeover of video game giant Activision (ATVI), saying the regulator feared Microsoft (MSFT) would try to close the purchase even though the FTC had originally challenged the takeover. December.
The trial and its timing are crucial to the deal as the July 18th deadline approaches soon, when the parties can withdraw, extend or renegotiate the deal.
“It’s all for a shooter video game,” Judge Corley said Thursday, referring to Activision’s “Call of Duty” game franchise. “We are worried about the competition for this shooter video game.”
On Wednesday, Microsoft’s Nadella tried to dispel the FTC’s argument that the software giant would try to restrict Activision (ATVI) content on its Xbox platform and not put it on competing platforms like Sony’s (SONY) PlayStation console.
“It makes neither economic nor strategic sense” to block Activision (ATVI) content from Sony’s (SONY) PlayStation console, Nadella said at the hearing. We “want to get our content on more platforms and become a great first-rate publisher.”
Judge Corley also questioned FTC lawyers whether the government would even be in court to block the deal if Sony agreed to a 10-year deal that offered Microsoft to put “Call of Duty” on Sony’s PlayStation.
“If Sony really had an agreement with Microsoft, for 10 years, to keep Call of Duty and future versions of ‘Call of Duty’ on PlayStation, and future versions of PlayStation, would we be here?” Corley wondered.
The judge scheduled a fact-finding Friday and plans to bring her ruling at some point under seal.
“At the end of the hearings, the judge reminded an FTC attorney that it’s no harm to Sony that you’re interested in; it’s no harm to consumers,” Chris Demuth Jr., a partner at Rangeley Capital, said in an interview with Seeking Alpha. “The FTC would have been better off if I had explained this to them at the outset. The FTC almost didn’t remind consumers, let alone prove that they would be harmed, while serving more as Sony lobbyists than American law enforcers.” A bizarre sight that is unlikely to be the first vertical fusion to be banned this century.”
While the FTC trial is crucial, M&A investors are also very focused on the UK Court of Appeal, where the country’s antitrust authority blocked the deal earlier this year. The appeal is due to be heard by a UK Court of Appeal on 28 July.