Authority in the US wants to stop Activision acquisition

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Facts: Activision Blizzard

American game giant Activision Blizzard had almost 10,000 employees last year.

The company consists of three major segments. These are Activision – which develops “Call of duty”, Blizzard – which, among other things, makes “World of Warcraft”, and Swedish-founded King – which makes the mobile game “Candy Crush”.

The main office is in Santa Monica, California. The company also has offices in Irvine in the same state, in New York, Wisconsin, London, Barcelona and Stockholm.

Activision Blizzard makes games like “Call of duty”, “Overwatch” and “World of warcraft”, and via King also mobile titles like “Candy crush”.

When Microsoft announced its plans to buy the company for $68.7 billion in January, it sent shockwaves through the gaming industry.

But maybe nothing will come of it. Through a lawsuit, the FTC wants to put an end to the purchase, which is seen as the biggest threat to the deal itself so far, but also one of the biggest obstacles that an American authority has put in place to slow down consolidation in the technology industry at large.

“Today, we seek to stop Microsoft from taking control of a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in several dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets,” said Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Competition Division.

The FTC believes that Microsoft has a history of buying up other game companies and then releasing their games exclusively to Microsoft’s Xbox on the console side, thereby no longer making them available for Nintendo’s and Sony’s consoles.

Microsoft’s planned giant acquisition, one of the largest in the gaming industry, has encountered some scrutiny elsewhere as well. The EU has, for example, started an in-depth review of the deal.

Microsoft chairman Brad Smith said in a statement that the purchase would in fact strengthen competition, and “welcomes the opportunity to present our case in court”.

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