US judge temporarily blocks Microsoft Activision deal

A US judge has agreed to block the Microsoft deal to acquire games publisher Activision Blizzard, albeit only temporarily.

Yesterday it emerged that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had filed for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction from a US federal district court to stop the $69 billion deal from going through.

Now a US judge has ruled in favour of that restraining order while they consider the preliminary injunction. As reported by The Verge, Judge Edward Davila has scheduled a two-day hearing for June 22 and 23 to hear the evidence from the FTC, meaning that Microsoft will be unlikely to close the deal this month.

If the result of that two day hearing is that the judge grants the FTC’s injunction, then the FTC will be able to make its case in court to permanently halt the Microsoft Activision deal.

The FTC follows the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in opposing Microsoft’s proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard. There are widespread worries that the acquisition would grant an unfair advantage to the American giant in the console market, with rivals Sony and Nintendo potentially blocked from access (or granted lesser access) to the mega-selling Call of Duty franchise, not to mention the likes of Diablo.

However, the regulator sentiment is far from united on this matter, with the EU waving through the deal off the back of Microsoft guaranteeing 10 years of free access to the Call of Duty franchise to its rivals.

Microsoft, for its part, has put on a positive face in the wake of this latest legal block on home turf, suggesting that it will actually serve to accelerate the process. It’ll now have to win in court for that to be true, of course.