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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The Federal Trade Commission dismissed its administrative challenge to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard on May 22, 2025. That came after a federal appeals court upheld the denial of the FTC’s request to temporarily block the deal—but the court’s ruling and the FTC’s later dismissal were separate legal events.
What happened, and when?
Microsoft announced the acquisition on January 18, 2022, at a stated value of $68.7 billion, according to the Ninth Circuit opinion. The FTC alleged that combining a major game publisher with a gaming-platform operator could harm competition in console devices, game-subscription services and cloud streaming, as described in the agency’s case docket.
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- May 7, 2025: The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction.
- May 22, 2025: The FTC docket records an order dismissing the agency’s administrative complaint.
The first event left the acquisition unblocked by that particular court order. The second ended the FTC’s administrative litigation in the case.
Why did the FTC stop pursuing the case?
The FTC’s order, as quoted in Associated Press reporting dated May 23, 2025, said “the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case.” That is the agency’s stated rationale—not a statement by the appeals court. The docket records the dismissal but does not establish that the FTC adopted every part of the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning as its own.
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What did the Ninth Circuit decide?
The Ninth Circuit reviewed whether the district court had abused its discretion by denying preliminary relief. It concluded the district court had not, because the FTC’s evidence did not sufficiently establish the likelihood of success required for the requested injunction under its Clayton Act Section 7 claim. The opinion addressed the FTC’s theories in three areas:
| Area | FTC’s concern | What the court said about the preliminary-injunction record |
|---|---|---|
| Consoles | Microsoft might make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox or release an inferior PlayStation version, harming console rivals. | The FTC had not sufficiently shown that Microsoft would foreclose or partially foreclose rivals in those ways. |
| Game-library subscriptions | Control of Activision Blizzard games could weaken competition among subscription services. | Activision Blizzard had long opposed putting its content in subscription libraries, so the acquisition could make that content newly available in the market. |
| Cloud streaming | The deal could disadvantage competitors in cloud-gaming services. | The FTC had not adequately shown that Activision Blizzard content would have been available to cloud-streaming services without the merger. |
These were findings about whether the FTC had justified preliminary relief on the record before the court. They were not guarantees about Microsoft’s future conduct or a universal ruling that mergers involving games cannot harm competition.
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Did the appeals court dismiss the FTC’s case?
No. The May 7 decision concerned the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction, not a final appellate judgment resolving the administrative complaint. The opinion noted that the administrative proceeding was still pending when the court ruled. The FTC dismissed that proceeding later, on May 22, as recorded in its docket.
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What the outcome means—and what it does not
- The FTC’s administrative complaint was dismissed on May 22, 2025.
- The Ninth Circuit had earlier upheld the denial of the FTC’s request to block the acquisition temporarily.
- The court’s decision assessed the evidence and legal standard for preliminary relief; it did not decide every possible question about the merger’s effects.
- The $68.7 billion figure is the announced transaction value reported in the Ninth Circuit opinion. It is not a measure of consumer harm, market size or the financial impact of the case.
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