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The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just denied the Federal Trade Commission's request to issue an emergency stay to extend a temporary restraining order. The current restraining order ends July 14, 2023 at 11:59PM (PT). This failure to get that temporary extension means that Microsoft, if they wanted to, could close the deal with Activision Blizzard tonight.
The FTC made the emergency extension request in an effort to keep the deal paused while they try to get their appeal in order. Without this emergency restraining order extension, I'm not even clear on whether or not the FTC can (or will) move forward with the rest of the appeals process. The restraining order being extended would have prevented Microsoft from moving forward with closing this deal before the deal deadline is up on July 18th.
With yet another loss under their belt and another win for Microsoft, the only thing standing in the way of Microsoft closing this deal tonight is the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA initially blocked the deal back in April. Microsoft quickly filed an appeal. On July 12th, the CMA said that any restructuring of the deal could "lead to a new merger investigation."
As of right now, the CMA and Microsoft have scheduled a "case management conference" for July 17th. It is here that the CMA will "consider the application made jointly by all parties to adjourn these proceedings pending further discussions between the CMA and Microsoft." That is to say: We'll find out on Monday (or Tuesday depending on when that's done and time zone differences) if this is a done deal or if the CMA takes their ball and goes home.
With any luck this will be over early next week and it won't drag on for another year.
Sony was offered 7 years for all Activision Blizzard games, not just CoD.
Jim Ryan also wanted for Call of Duty to be on PlayStation Plus the same day as GamePass, a favorable revenue share, and Bethesda on PlayStation. And the only thing he was confirmed to get was that 10 year Call of Duty deal because he was bullheaded.
And where the hell does Jim Ryan get off trying to suggest that if games released on PlayStation later than Xbox that they are "tantamount to not making them available on PlayStation at all"? Look at how many THIRD-party games that Sony has funded to be either full PS exclusive or timed PS exclusive, even from PC! Fuck outta here with that, Jim.