The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on Monday in federal court seeking to pause Microsoft’s proposed $69B USD acquisition of Call of Duty and Overwatch 2 maker Activision Blizzard.
The federal agency said in its filing that a restraining order to halt the acquisition while the court considers granting a preliminary injunction, which would allow the FTC to continue through its “administrative proceeding” to determine if the transaction violates U.S. antitrust law.
The case within the FTC is scheduled to continue on Aug. 2.
Both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard were also part of a preliminary hearing before the Competition Appeal Tribunal on Monday, as all parties hash out the particulars before the appeals case against the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) occurs later this summer.
The FTC and CMA cases are some of the last hurdles that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have to overcome in order to finalize their plans to become one entity.
The acquisition has been approved in other jurisdictions including the European Union, China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Serbia, Chile, Japan, South Africa, and Ukraine. Rulings are still pending in New Zealand and Australia.
