As we mentioned at the start of the week, the FTC’s preliminary hearing concerning the takeover of Activision by Microsoft did take place last night, the opportunity to learn a little more about what is going on between the Biden administration and Microsoft.
The FTC delays, but Microsoft wants to move quickly
Several people were able to attend the hearing, including Leah Nylen from Bloomberg or Bryan Koenig from Law360, which specializes in legal analysis.
A sign that the case is of interest to many people, the teleconference line was severely disrupted at the start of the hearing and started a few minutes late, even though access had been doubled with the American operator AT&T. Administrative Judge D. Michael Chappell also quipped by stating that it was “the first time that an electronic conference has presented more problems than a videoconference with Zoom”.
Joking aside, we learn that James Weingarten, lawyer for the FTC, declared that the agency did not plan “for the moment” to seize federal justice. The FTC did authorize its staff to engage in negotiations, but “there are no substantive discussions at this time”.
The teleconference only lasted a few minutes, but it is interesting to know that the FTC does not intend to go to the federal stage for the moment, and prefers instead to settle the case via its own jurisdictions. According to several experts, the FTC’s case is not the strongest, and a defeat in US courts would damage the reputation and legitimacy of the antitrust regulator.
For its part, Microsoft has every interest in speeding up the procedure to try to reach an agreement before July, the date the company has set for closing the deal. According to Bryan Koenig, Microsoft seems to think that a very quick decision could come from the European Union, which would force the FTC to take action in federal court, where M&A cases are settled more quick.
FTC Judge Michael Chappell is due to rule on the settlement after hearings scheduled for August 2023. If no settlement is reached by then, the parties will be able to appeal to the same FTC commissioners who voted on the challenge, then in a US Court of Appeals.
The case is therefore far from over and has only just begun in the legal field. To understand everything about this historic takeover and discover the upcoming schedule in 2023, we invite you to consult our complete file on the stakes of the takeover of Activision for Microsoft.
