Microsoft's planned $69 billion purchase of video game company Activision Blizzard was blocked by a federal judge Tuesday, giving more time for an antitrust review of the deal.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco ruled in support of a temporary restraining order sought by the Federal Trade Commission that will stop Microsoft from closing the deal.
In a court filing Monday, the commission had sought both a restraining order and injunction to stop Microsoft’s acquisition of the California company behind hit games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush Saga.
Microsoft, maker of the Xbox game system, has spent months trying to win worldwide approval for the merger. While a number of countries have approved the acquisition, regulators for two important economies — the U.S. and the U.K. — have taken action to stop it, arguing it could suppress competition in the video game market.
The judge said her order temporarily blocking the deal “is necessary to maintain the status quo” while the Federal Trade Commission's legal cases against it are still pending. The bar for issuing an urgent restraining order is lower than it is to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the deal. A hearing on the commission's request for an injunction is set for June 22.
The commission said it brought its case to a federal court this week because it was concerned that Microsoft was trying to imminently close the deal before the trial begins, which would make it "difficult, if not impossible” to reverse course if the acquisition was later found to be illegal.
Microsoft said in a written statement late Tuesday that “accelerating the legal process in the U.S will ultimately bring more choice and competition to the gaming market."
“A temporary restraining order makes sense until we can receive a decision from the Court, which is moving swiftly,” the company said.
Body odor is natural, but it’s not exactly welcome… Thankfully, we have all kinds of deodorants and antiperspirants to help eliminate the stink. But believe it or not, there was a time when people weren’t so ready to accept these solutions. In fact, it took a pretty savage marketing campaign to convince us we had a problem at all.
Cannabis World Congress and Business (CWCB) Expo returned to the Javits Center in Manhattan at a very decisive time for New York's cannabis industry. Chloe Aiello reports.
Vault, an NFT platform that allows creators to curate their own music and videos via an exclusive invitation, recently teamed up with independent artist Pip for the launch of his new album "Cotton Candy Skies." Nigel Eccles, the CEO of Vault, and singer-songwriter Pip joined Cheddar News to break down how the new platform works and why it's different from other blockchain concepts. "The way we've built it is we use the NFTs as keys that unlock the vault, and it's only the people who have those keys can actually see the contents of the vault," said Eccles. Pip added that he felt "inspired" to help with a new way of doing things in the music industry.
On this episode of ChedHER: Tiffany Johnson, CEO of Built for Launch, discusses the Black Founders Ecom Pledge that provides tools and resources for Black founders to build, launch, and scale a successful e-commerce business; Alexa von Tobel, Founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital, and Leoni Runge, Founder of Zaya, breaks down the state of maternal care and support for female founders in venture capital; Hannah Schwab, Global Co-Chair of Gender Expansive Council at JPMorgan Chase, explains the goal of the Gender Expansive Council and what kind of resources organizations can offer to support the LGBT+ community.
Tiffany Johnson, CEO of Built for Launch, joins ChedHER to discuss the Black Founders Ecom Pledge that provides tools and resources for Black founders to build, launch, and scale a successful e-commerce business.
Today is National Doughnut Day! Cheddar News celebrated with Steven Klein, the owner of Dough Doughnuts in New York City, who joined us with some delicious samples from hibiscus flavored to ube cheesecake. "It's a fun fest that people love doughnuts, and it's a way of celebrating doughnuts that people just want to try, and they want to try with their friends, their offices, their parties, their groups," said Klein. "So we get inundated in all our stores with lines of people coming to buy multiple doughnuts to celebrate the day."
U.S. employers added 390,000 jobs in May, extending a streak of solid hiring that has bolstered an economy under pressure from high inflation and rising interest rates.
