MS Buys Activision in Totally not in Monopolistic Fashion

[Jimmy Higgins]

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Microsoft has announced it will purchase the company that created River Raid and Chopper Command, and presumably others since then, for $68.7 billion! Microsoft is a software company that has it's own operating system some people might be aware of. They also sell game consoles. And now own the company that created Pitfall! Seems kind of monopolistic to sell consoles, operating systems, and the games themselves. Nintendo created their own stuff, so they are an exception as they didn't just buy their brands.

The question remains, can Microsoft manage to make this investment worth it. Yes, they are buying the power behind the release of Seaquest, but ... yes... this will be used to make people buy their Xbox online subscription.

It is currently unknown if Chopper Command, River Raid, Pitfall, or Seaquest will be available on their Xbox subscription.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Judge rules against FTC trying to block this acquisition.

In a 53-page redacted decision, Northern California District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said the FTC had not demonstrated it was likely to show that the deal would substantially limit competition. To the contrary, she said the evidenced produced in the litigation indicated that the acquisition might make popular Activision games such as “Call of Duty” available to more consumers.

Making anti-trust regulators wonder, "What the fuck anti-trust means anymore?!"

The case was widely seen as a bellwether of Democrats’ ambitious plans to rein in Silicon Valley. FTC Chair Lina Khan and other Biden tech enforcers were widely expected to usher in a new era of stricter tech regulation, but they have faced critical losses in the courts.

This year, another Northern California judge allowed Meta to move forward with the acquisition of the virtual reality company Within. The FTC made similar arguments in its challenge to that deal, arguing that the acquisition could harm competition and innovation in virtual reality. The deal gave Meta, the maker of the Oculus virtual reality headset, control of Within’s popular fitness game “Supernatural.” The FTC argued in its lawsuit that the deal put Meta closer to its goal of “owning the entire ‘Metaverse,’” a virtual world that the company has bet is the future of the internet.