• A report from Politico suggests the Federal Trade Commission may lodge a lawsuit to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
• The body is concerned that Microsoft could gain an unfair advantage in the video game market in future.
• This presents another speedbump in an acquisition that must be complete by July next year.

At the top of the year Microsoft announced that it planned on acquiring Activision Blizzard for a cool $69 billion.

Ever since that announcement, however, Microsoft has faced an uphill battle against competitors and regulators as it tries to finalise this acquisition. Until now the most push back we’ve seen from a government is in Europe and the UK, but now the USA has joined the chorus.

This is according to Politico which, citing sources “with knowledge of the matter”, reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is potentially filing an anti-trust lawsuit in relation to this acquisition. This lawsuit, according to the report, would scrutinise Microsoft’s position in the market and determine whether adding Activision Blizzard to its mix would give it an unfair boost.

While the FTC is yet to actually file such a suit, it would mirror an investigation in the UK.

In July, the Competition and Markets Authority said it would investigate this acquisition to determine if it would lessen the competition in the market.

One of the sore points for competitor Sony is the Call of Duty franchise. The PlayStation 5 maker argues that by acquiring Activision Blizzard, Microsoft could limit Call of Duty’s availability on its platform. This, however, has been refuted by the likes of Xbox head Phil Spencer who has stated that the title won’t be exclusive to Microsoft’s platforms, but of course, this could change post-acquisition.

And as Politico points out, the FTC appears to be more worried about what happens post-acquisition and how Microsoft would wield this power.

However, Activision Blizzard has refuted claims that the acquisition would lead to an unfair advantage for Microsoft.

“Any suggestion that the transaction could lead to anticomp effects is completely absurd. This merger will benefit gamers and the US gaming industry, especially as we face increasingly stiff competition from abroad,” spokesperson for the Warcraft maker, Joe Christinat said.

“We are committed to continuing to work cooperatively with regulators around the globe to allow the transaction to proceed, but will not hesitate to fight to defend the transaction if required,” the Activision Blizzard spokesperson added.

With all of these investigations in play, the acquisition is more than likely going to take a few more months to complete and with a deadline of July, both parties are surely hoping things go smoothly, even if that’s not the impression we’re getting.