The Federal Trade Commission will appeal a decision made by a federal judge in California that overruled its attempt to block Microsoft from buying video game maker Activision, according to court documents filed on Wednesday.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FTC declined to comment.
The decision in Microsoft’s favor, while not unexpected, is a major setback for antitrust regulators, who have pursued a new, more aggressive strategy under current chair Lina Khan. The FTC also sued to block Meta’s acquisition of augmented reality start-up Within, but a judge also decided to allow that acquisition to proceed.
The FTC’s approach on fighting consolidation in the tech industry is wide ranging.
It has brought actions again three times this year against Amazon, reaching two privacy settlements and suing the company for allegedly tricking customers into signing up for auto-renewing Prime memberships that are hard to cancel.
But its failure in the Microsoft case suggests the FTC faces a steep path to victory in its attempt to rein in big tech.
The acquisition of Activision, which owns “Call of Duty” among other popular games, will help Microsoft continue in its pursuit of expanding beyond its core business areas of personal and cloud computing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
My added commentary,
The FTC has various strong points against the decision, one of which is Judge Corley's misinterpretation of the standard to which the FTC had to make their case.
The judge used the standard 'will probably substantially lessen competition', which is a MUCH higher bar than the actual standard set out; "MAY substantially lessen competition".
Judge Corley also has a son who works for Microsoft and although she did declare that fact before the proceedings it STILL violates 2 different code of ethics for Judges, canons 2 and 3. Which outline that a judge should recuse themselves where impartiality might be questioned or where they have a person close to them that could substantially be effected by the outcome of the trial.
Both cases apply to Judge Corley.
Several holes in her reasoning and her more aggressive rebukes of the FTC also indicate a significant degree of impartiality.
Last edited:
