(Bloomberg) — A U.S. appeals court has rejected a Federal Trade Commission bid to halt Microsoft Corp’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. on Friday, paving the way for the companies to secure the biggest gaming deal ever in the United States.
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The ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit means that only UK regulators will come between companies that close the deal before the July 18 deadline. Britain’s antitrust appeals court has scheduled a hearing for July 17 to discuss the companies’ request to suspend the country’s competition agency challenge to their deal.
“This brings us one step closer to the finish line of this marathon of global regulatory reviews,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement. Activision did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Activision climbed as much as 4.4% in after-hours trading, rising to $94 from its close of $90.07. Microsoft gained 1.5%.
The decision is a blow to the FTC and its chairman Lina Khan, who sought to block the merger over fears that Microsoft would pull Activision’s most popular games from rival consoles or services. The court-ordered break on Microsoft’s Activision merger was set to expire Friday at midnight Pacific time.
Microsoft is under strong pressure to close the deal before the July 18 deadline to avoid paying a $3 billion severance fee to Activision.
The FTC declined to comment on the decision and whether it plans to pursue its internal case against the deal. Proceedings before an FTC administrative judge were scheduled to begin Aug. 2.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority, which vetoed the merger in April over concerns over the deal’s impact on the cloud gaming market, agreed to give Microsoft a second unprecedented chance to offer a cure. Microsoft has offered to sell cloud-based marketplace rights for games in the UK, Bloomberg reported earlier.
Read more: Microsoft, Activision Eye UK Sale of rights to complete the merger
In a procedural move separate from this week’s developments, the CMA said on Friday it had extended its deadline to issue a legally final order on the deal until August 29.
–With the help of Malathi Nayak.
(Updates with FTC declining to comment.)
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