US authorities are looking at the hands of Microsoft. It is about a record transaction

The acquisition by Microsoft of Activision Blizzard represents the largest buyout in the history of the video game industry. As it turns out, the Federal Trade Commission will monitor the merger correctness.

The largest transaction in the gaming industry

The gaming industry is still recovering from the massive shock caused by the Redmond giant’s buyout of Activision Blizzard. Almost 70 billion was found on the table. dollars for which Microsoft was to acquire the studio and the rights to all its brands. As a result, the creators of Windows would enrich themselves with such series as Call of Duty, WarCraft or Diablo.

The message caused a stir among gamers. Especially those dedicated to the recently underestimated Blizzard brands – StarCraft or Warcraft. The fans of these games see the taking of rights as a chance for the revival of the forgotten or wrongly led titles.

Microsoft’s purchases under the watchful eye of the authorities

Any acquisition of an important entity operating in a given market must be approved by independent authorities to avoid monopolization. In this case, the merger verification must be performed by the US government using the available tools. So far, such matters have been handled by the Justice Department.

This will not be the case when Microsoft purchases Activision Blizzard. The case will be dealt with by the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency of the US government that was established to enforce civil antitrust law. This was reported by the Bloomberg editors, which at the same time described this body as more demanding and scrupulous than the Justice Department.

An announcement of a detailed investigation was published on Twitter by Jerry Nadler, a member of the US House of Representatives. In a short post, he presented the past controversy regarding Activision Blizzard related to employee abuse. By acting, he wants to make sure that the transaction with Microsoft will not adversely affect employees and competition on the market.