Microsoft walks back FTC shade
Tech giant Microsoft has walked back some of the more aggressive language used in a court filing in its case against US’ Federal Trade Commission regarding the purchase of Activision Blizzard.
As reported by Axios, the Xbox parent has resubmitted a filing it made last year, with this new version no longer featuring a five-bullet point list attacking the structure of the FTC and its in-house court. Microsoft initially claimed that the government body was not constitutional.
This initially made it into the filing by mistake, at least according to Microsoft public affairs spokesperson David Cuddy.
“The FTC has an important mission to protect competition and consumers, and we quickly updated our response to omit language suggesting otherwise based on the constitution,” he said.
“We initially put all potential arguments on the table internally and should have dropped these defenses before we filed.
“We appreciated feedback about these defenses and are engaging directly with those who expressed concerns to make our position clear.”
Microsoft is currently in the process of trying to buy Call of Duty giant Activision Blizzard for a record-breaking $68.7 billion. The deal has been approved in some regions, but the FTC has filed a lawsuit to block it in the United States. In the UK and EU, competition regulators are conducting deeper investigations to see how the acquisition would impact the market.
