By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
EpicRandy on 30 June 2023
Edit Thread
Ryuu96 said:

Lmao. Someone actually made this.

Even if she grants the injunction, I can't be mad at her, she was brilliant, slapped down that Console complaint.

I don't know what exactly is the threshold for the FTC to overcome here. I know it's not the highest which would require FTC to prove without reasonable doubt MS is going to create an SLC as a result of the merger. But under that, there is a different level that ranges from mere probability to more likely than not to highly likely. Even below that, it's probable that they only had to show that it is probable they do find an SLC by continuing their investigation

In case it is based on the likeliness of an SLC, even with the lower standard of mere probability, the FTC still had to prove that the worse possible outcome would still result in an SLC and not just something which current actors might mitigate in various ways. 

In case it is based on the probability to find an SLC by continuing their investigation, I don't know if the Judge will take into consideration the remaining time between now and the FTC internal court case vs the time FTC had to prepare up to this point to see if that's even plausible. like (you took 1 year to come up with those ludicrous findings and you think you can find the holy grail in a month...)

For me, the only win for the FTC in all those days was to get MS to say they did not do a pro-competitive assessment of the merger. which is not that strong anyway because

  • There's no reason to do so if you don't intend on making ABK content exclusive anyway
  • The absence of a pro-competitive assessment does not show a likeliness of an anti-competitive effect which the FTC has to show.
  • MS work was focused on demonstrating no anti-competitive effect and if those findings are factual then the effect may only range from no competitive effects to pro-competitive effect anyway. And the FTC did a piss poor job refuting anything MS did produce.

Another thing to consider though is that since MS have demonstrated they intend to fully retain ABK as a separate entity within the organization meaning any divestitures would be easy to achieve, this might raise the bar for the FTC to obtain a PI.