The acquisition of Blizzard by Microsoft was not well received by everyone. Ten players even took the deal to court. After almost two years, the result is now clear.
What did the gamers intend? In 2022, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly 69 billion US dollars. While some were happy about this news, there were also those who wanted to prevent the plan. Among them was an authority that found that Microsoft’s market power harmed Xbox players.
But some players also perceived the acquisition as a bad idea. Ten critics of the deal even joined forces to legally challenge the acquisition. Their accusation: The purchase of Activision Blizzard would put Microsoft in an “undisputed position” in the video game market and harm free competition.
While the initial lawsuit was dismissed due to “too generally formulated allegations,” the players filed a revised version of the lawsuit in April 2023. This included information from internal strategy documents of Microsoft that were supposed to support the players.
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No success for the gamers
How did the lawsuit turn out? Almost a year after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was completed, the lawsuit has now also been concluded.
As reported by hollywoodreporter.com, the gamers probably could not provide enough evidence to substantiate their allegations. Even the internal strategy documents apparently were not sufficient.
According to the article, the parties settled their dispute and reached an out-of-court agreement. The joint statement says that both sides decided to have the lawsuit “dismissed unconditionally”.
The lawsuit cannot be refiled later, which Microsoft can certainly count as a success.
What does the settlement look like exactly? There is no detailed insight into the settlement. Both sides have agreed to keep the terms confidential. In a court document, it states: “Each party bears its own costs and fees”.
After Microsoft’s acquisition, the company made headlines this year with significant layoffs, which also affected the recently acquired companies and studios of Activision and Blizzard: Update on layoffs at Activision Blizzard by the end of 2024: 3 locations are affected
