Microsoft will fight U.S. over $68.7-billion Activision Blizzard deal
LA TimesMicrosoft is headed for a battle with the Federal Trade Commission, filing a formal challenge Thursday over whether the U.S. will block the tech giant’s planned takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard. Microsoft is headed for a battle with the Federal Trade Commission over whether the U.S. will block the tech giant’s planned takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard. At the center of the dispute is Microsoft’s rivalry with PlayStation-maker Sony to secure popular Activision Blizzard franchises like the military shooter game “Call of Duty.” Microsoft’s response to the FTC tries to downplay Xbox’s role in the industry, describing itself as the “third-place manufacturer of gaming consoles” behind Sony and Nintendo, and one of just many publishers of popular video games with “next to no presence in mobile gaming,” where it is trying to make gains. Activision Blizzard filed its own rebuttal to the FTC complaint Thursday criticizing what it described as the FTC’s “unfounded assumption” that Microsoft would want to withhold “Call of Duty” from platforms that compete with Xbox.