FTC Issues Complaint to Block Microsoft Deal to Buy Activision Blizzard
December 08 2022 - 2:44PM
Dow Jones News
By Will Feuer
The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to block Microsoft
Corp.'s $75 billion purchase of video-game developer Activision
Blizzard Inc.
In a complaint issued Thursday, the FTC alleged that Microsoft
has a record of buying and using valuable gaming content to
suppress competition from rival consoles. The FTC pointed to the
company's 2020 deal to buy ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda
Softworks. Microsoft later made several of Bethesda's titles
exclusive to the company and withheld them from rivals like Sony
Group Corp.'s Playstation.
"Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold
content from its gaming rivals," said Holly Vedova, Director of the
FTC's Bureau of Competition. "Today we seek to stop Microsoft from
gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it
to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming
markets."
Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 08, 2022 14:29 ET (19:29 GMT)
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