U.S. District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has denied a Microsoft motion to put a gamer-led lawsuit on hold pending resolution in the courts of a Federal Trade Commission court action. In its pleading with the court, Microsoft argued that the lawsuit opposing the $69B USD merger with Activision Blizzard (Dante Demartini v. Microsoft Corporation) in December should not go on simultaneously with the FTC case because it would duplicate litigation and could create inconsistent rulings in the courts.
Judge Corley sided with the plaintiffs, denied the motion, and scheduled a hearing to hear arguments on March 23. Following that hearing, Judge Corley will consider issuing a preliminary injunction to block the merger.
Last week Microsoft made a commitment to the court that it would not complete the merger with Activision Blizzard before March 31, as the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority review deadline is April 26, while the European Commission is expected to issue a Statement of Objections (SO) sometime this week. The CMA moved its final report date from March 1 earlier this month, saying that it would need more time because of the complexity of the investigation, the large volume of evidence it needs to go through, and submissions from stakeholders and consumers in the UK that it had to take into consideration.
The general consensus is that Microsoft will try to remedy whatever objections these regulators have and then offer those solutions to the FTC. Should all of these agencies be satisfied (and the Demartini case doesn’t cause any further complications–which it might), Microsoft hopes to have the acquisition consummated before the deadline of July 18—if it goes beyond that date it will abandon the deal and be forced to pay Activision Blizzard $3B in separation fees.