WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Trade Commission official on Thursday dropped the agency’s case before an internal judge that sought to block Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision.
The agency is advancing a two-pronged attack against the proposed transaction. One was in the district court, which refused last week to slap a preliminary injunction on the proposed transaction. The appeals court also rejected the request to suspend the contract.
The second was before the FTC administrative law judge, where the agreement was set to go to court on August 2. It was the attack that the agency held on Thursday, with an order made by FTC Secretary April Tabor.
Microsoft and Activision argued in a proposal posted on the FTC’s website Wednesday that the agency’s withdrawal is mandatory and in the public interest.
“The district court has had a full opportunity to consider the FTC’s claims and finds that the Commission is unlikely to succeed on the merits of those claims for several, sufficiently independent reasons,” the companies said in their motion.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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