A U.S. appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by federal regulators to block Microsoft from closing its $68.7 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard
, paving the way for the completion of the biggest acquisition in tech history after a legal battle over whether it will undermine competition.
The appeal filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was a last-ditch effort from antitrust enforcers to halt the merger after another federal judge earlier this week ruled against the agency’s attempt to block it. The FTC was seeking an injunction to prevent Microsoft from moving to close the deal as early as this weekend.U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley’s ruling, published Tuesday, said the FTC hadn’t shown that the deal would cause substantial harm.
It was the FTC, however, that had asked Corley for an urgent hearing on its request to block Microsoft and Activision Blizzard from rushing to close the deal. The agency’s argument was that if the deal closed now, it would be harder to reverse the merger if it was later found to violate antitrust laws.
British antitrust regulators on Friday extended their deadline to issue a final order on the proposed merger, allowing them to consider Microsoft’s “detailed and complex submission” pleading its case.
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