The endless Saga of the legal battle between Microsoft and the FTC over the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard continues, but a Judge just shut a door in Microsoft's face.
A while ago Microsoft sent a subpoena to Sony to try and force it to share more documents about the deal that will keep the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation for the time being.
When Sony declined, Microsoft's counsel asked the Administrative Law Judge overseeing the case against the FTC to certify a request for court enforcement, while accusing the house of PlayStation of having cherry-picked the documents it did present to favor the FTC in the legal battle.
Sony rejected the accusation, while the FTC asked the court to file its opposition to Microsoft's motion, calling the subpoena served to Sony "invalid." To that, Microsoft responded that they should be allowed to file an opposing opinion of their own.
Fast forward to today, and the administrative Judge has put an end to all the nonsense, by issuing an order rejecting outright Microsoft's counsel's request to compel Sony to share more documents.
Chief Administrative Law Judge Michael Chappell ruled that fact discovery on the case was closed on April 7, 2023, and Microsoft did not ask for discovery to be reopened. On top of that, nothing in the court's orders grants Microsoft leave to reopen discovery.
Chappell continues by mentioning that Microsoft served the subpoena on Sony of its own volition and without authorization, so SIE's failure to comply isn't subject to court enforcement.
At the moment, we don't know what kind of effect this denial will have on Microsoft's case.
The house of Xbox will likely try to prove that the deal with Sony is an indication that the acquisition is pro-competitive while the FTC may attempt to argue the opposite.
The FTC is still trying to fight against the acquisition despite the fact that it has been closed, and Microsoft is already at work to further integrate Activision, Blizzard, and King's management within its chain of command.
