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MLex reports that Microsoft and Activision can expect the FTC injunction request in federal court today!
- The Federal Trade Commission is planning to file a preliminary injunction request in federal court today to stop the deal from closing.
- The FTC anticipates that the parties are moving to speed up the closing date of the transaction, that's why the FTC will seek a temporary order in federal court preventing that from happening. The agency would need to act before the companies close the transaction, which would otherwise make a preliminary injunction moot.
- The FTC wants to avoid another Illumina-Grail case, where it filed a preliminary injunction request and a complaint at its administrative court, but later dropped the preliminary injunction because the European Commission was still reviewing the deal. Then Illumina ended up closing the deal.
- In order to be granted a preliminary injunction from a judge, the FTC needs to show that there's an imminent risk that the companies would close the deal.
- In the gamer's lawsuit, a federal judge in California declined to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the deal from closing.
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#Microsoft #Activision: understand US FTC will file a preliminary injunction request *today* to block the deal from going ahead.
— Michael Acton (@MActon93) June 12, 2023
FTC already filed a complaint, but didn't ask for a temporary block at the time because there was no risk of it closing.
FTC is skipping the internal court nonsense and moving straight to an actual block, finally!
They wouldn't be doing this unless they were worried that Microsoft is about to close.
Oh boy, this is where the fun begins, time for the FTC to be smashed in court.
CMA isn't getting the job done fast enough and FTC can't file for a block if Microsoft closes before the filing.
Now Microsoft will have to put a lengthy extension on the deal though which seemed to be what they were trying to avoid.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 12 June 2023
