The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday filed its appeal of a federal judge’s decision earlier this week allowing Microsoft to close its $69 billion merger with Activision Blizzard. The FTC had asked for a preliminary injunction while a separate legal challenge to the merger unfolds in the agency’s in-house administrative court. Tuesday’s decision paved the way for Microsoft to potentially finalize the deal with Activision in a matter of days, ahead of a July 18 contractual deadline. Alternatively, the companies could mutually seek to extend that timeframe. Consummating the deal would turn Microsoft into the third largest video game publisher in the world, after Tencent and Sony.

Source: CNN July 13, 2023 12:59 UTC