The Federal Trade Commission just took a critical hit in its legal battle against Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard—the biggest deal the gaming world has ever seen. In a unanimous decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shut down the FTC’s attempt to resurrect the fight, siding instead with a lower court that had already greenlit the merger.
At the heart of this legal skirmish? The FTC’s claim that the deal could smother competition, especially in the gaming subscription and cloud arenas. But the court didn’t bite. It ruled the FTC had failed to demonstrate that Microsoft’s takeover of the “Call of Duty” publisher would likely lead to an unfair monopoly.
This wasn’t just a speed bump—the FTC had hoped to freeze the deal while pursuing its in-house antitrust case, which has been on ice since 2023. That case is now looking increasingly obsolete.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who initially waved the deal through last July, had already declared the FTC’s fears speculative and unsupported by evidence. The appeals court echoed that view, rejecting the agency’s argument that the judge had set the bar too high.
With this ruling, Microsoft’s mega-merger remains locked in, undisturbed, and officially out of the FTC’s immediate reach. What began as a regulatory standoff has ended in a high-score win for the Xbox giant—and a reset for the agency’s playbook.
