A US federal judge has put Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard on hold as the Federal Trade Commission seeks to block the transaction.
A judge in a US district court in California on Tuesday handed down an order prohibiting the closure of the gaming industry’s biggest deal pending an “evidentiary hearing” set for Thursday and Friday next week.
The FTC last year had sued to block what would be Microsoft’s biggest deal yet through its own in-house proceedings. But on Monday it filed a complaint asking the federal court to block the transaction until after those proceedings — set to begin in August — determine whether the tie-up violates US antitrust laws.
Read the full story on the Financial Times here.