Xbox |OT|

[Ryuu96]

NobleTeam360 said:

Ryuu96 said:

It'd be funny if CMA/EC do approve it, but FTC opts to take Microsoft to court and as a result, FTC comes out of it as the only major regulatory body without a concession agreement, it won't matter to us since any concession Microsoft agrees to with a major regulatory body would be enforced worldwide but a bit of a PR blackeye to FTC...CMA and EC got a concession and FTC got...nothing.

Just curious, MS can still end up closing the deal even without the FTC, right? Like say China, UK, and European Union have all approved the deal but the FTC case is still ongoing?

IIRC. Microsoft can close the deal without FTC as long as the rest approve it, though the odds of that are apparently low, I'm assuming because it would be a bad look to close a deal while a major regulatory body is pending but it is still a possibility and given how FTC is acting lately, I don't know if many will care.

But I think it's because FTC works different to others, they don't technically approve deals, they just choose not to block them and they don't even technically block deals, they ask the courts to do it for them, so Microsoft doesn't 'need' FTC's approval because they don't approve. But there is now a pending case active either way.

So Microsoft's options is wait until August and go through normal procedure which means the deal won't close until 2024, wait until June when the Supreme Court will (likely) rule against FTC and allow companies to take them straight to federal court or call FTC's bluff and close without them, which FTC responds to by either dropping their case, coming to an agreement with Microsoft or takes them to federal court.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 24 December 2022