The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States decided to pause the internal judgment regarding the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, which was scheduled to take place in August.
In a request filed on July 18th, Xbox filed a motion to withdraw the lawsuit, and the FTC responded this week to that effect, having no objections.
While this appears to spell the end of the FTC’s administrative challenge over the $69 billion merger, it’s still possible that the FTC will either resume this or reach a settlement with Microsoft. The ruling follows the recent verdict denying the Commission’s request to pause negotiations, which was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Experts increasingly believe the FTC has slim chance of winning its case against Xbox and Activision Blizzard, and members of Congress have already asked the agency to back down from its challenge involving the merger.
Currently, it only remains for Microsoft, Activision Blizzard and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to close an agreement for the negotiation to be completed. Recently the merger deal was extended to October to buy more time to gain approval from UK regulators.
