Microsoft set to battle FTC over $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard deal

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, a gaming company famous for hits like Call of Duty, disputed the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge to their proposed $68.7 billion merger on Thursday, writing in a court filing that the U.S. regulator’s concerns that the deal would undermine fair competition in the gaming industry are “unfounded” and “absurd.” The rebuttal foreshadows a coming legal battle between Microsoft, a tech giant that has largely avoided close regulatory scrutiny from federal authorities in recent years, and the FTC, whose chairwoman Lina Khan is a well-known skeptic of big tech.