FTC Finally Drops Bid to Unwind Microsoft Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

After wasting taxpayer money for over two years, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has finally thrown in the towel and will no longer seek to unwind Microsoft’s $68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“On May 7, 2025, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the decision of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, FTC v. Microsoft Corp., denying the Commission’s application for a preliminary injunction to block the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc. by Microsoft Corp,” an FTC order issued late Thursday notes. “The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case. Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the Complaint in this matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed.”

Microsoft’s response was even shorter.

“Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C.,” Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith tweeted. “We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement.”

Left unsaid is what took so f#$king long. The FTC sued to block the acquisition in December 2022, and Microsoft then spent the next two-plus years running the rack with every legal win imaginable. It should have culminated in the FTC giving up when Microsoft was allowed to consummate the merger with Activision Blizzard. But in a bizarre and unprecedented move, the FTC inexplicably chose to hold an internal trial and see whether it couldn’t unwind it after the fact. But that effort was rejected by a U.S. District Court Judge earlier this month.

The FTC was wrong about Microsoft and Activision Blizzard from the beginning. But it became clear over time how misguided this agency was about this case, despite Microsoft’s many concessions, and despite every other regulatory agency on earth giving the deal the green light.