FTC is still "carrying it hard": insisting that Microsoft's acquisition of Blizzard will threaten competition in the game industry.

CTOnews.com, October 14 (Xinhua)-- Microsoft announced the completion of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard with the approval of British regulator CMA. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is still "carrying it hard" and still plans to sue Microsoft.

In a statement sent to Deadline, a FTC spokesman said:

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard completed the deal ahead of the appeals court hearing scheduled for December, but we are still pressing ahead with the federal appeals process.

The new agreement between Microsoft, Activision and Ubisoft brings new content to the merger and is bound to affect American consumers. The FTC is conducting a review in accordance with administrative procedures and still believes that the deal poses a threat to competition.

CTOnews.com reported in September that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would continue to file administrative proceedings against Microsoft to prevent the company from buying Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.

FTC said that in the "best interest of the public", it decided to conduct a full investigation into the merger and restart the adjudication process.

Microsoft announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard in January 2022 and initially planned to complete the deal in July 2023, but the deadline was postponed to October 18 due to obstacles from some countries and regions such as the United Kingdom and the United States.

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been approved by institutions in more than 40 countries and regions around the world. Britain's CMA said on Friday that Activision Blizzard's sale of cloud game rights to Ubisoft had greatly addressed previous concerns and opened the door to approval of the deal.

Related readings:

"the Federal Trade Commission issued an announcement to continue to prevent Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard."