US Antitrust Enforcer Continues Fighting Microsoft/Activision Deal, Calls it 'A Threat to Competition' (reuters.com) 28
Yesterday America's Federal Trade Commission said it remained focused on its appeal opposing Microsoft's deal to buy Activision, reports Reuters.
Reuters notes that Microsoft and Activision closed their transaction Friday "after winning approval from Britain on condition that they sell the streaming rights to Activision's games to Ubisoft Entertainment." But the U.S. Federal Trade Commission "has also fought the deal, and has an argument scheduled before an appeals court on December 6. The agency said on Friday that it remained focused on that appeal." An FTC spokesperson had this comment for Reuters.
"The FTC continues to believe this deal is a threat to competition."
Reuters notes that Microsoft and Activision closed their transaction Friday "after winning approval from Britain on condition that they sell the streaming rights to Activision's games to Ubisoft Entertainment." But the U.S. Federal Trade Commission "has also fought the deal, and has an argument scheduled before an appeals court on December 6. The agency said on Friday that it remained focused on that appeal." An FTC spokesperson had this comment for Reuters.
"The FTC continues to believe this deal is a threat to competition."
Biden has picked some of the best people! (Score:5, Informative)
...and it is a shame the GOP tarred and feathered Biden's FCC pick, Gigi Sohn [wikipedia.org] and Gigi Sohn subsequently chose to withdraw her candidacy for government service [wikipedia.org]. It was our Nation's loss.
That being said, Biden's FTC choice Lina Khan [nytimes.com] is taking names and kicking ass!
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/t... [nbcnews.com]
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/2... [cnbc.com]
Re: (Score:2)
How many of those cases did the FTC win? Maybe the FTC lost two, but other departments lost more. At least four, as of a year ago.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/... [reuters.com]
And the FTC has dismissed or settled more cases.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news... [yahoo.com]
While I generally agree with picking your battles (Score:5, Insightful)
If the FTC can't win this one then our courts are too packed for them to win *anything*. But when you're fighting against something that fundamentally breaks capitalism and the US economy (anti-trust) you can't just throw in the towel. You keep fighting the good fight and hope the voters come to their senses at some point.
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There's also tons of emails found during discovery that show Microsoft is doing this specifically to hurt competition and violating the law.
Got a source on that?
I agree it's obviously probably bad for consumers so I don't understand why both the EU and UK have approved it.
Re: (Score:2)
It was approved because of how people in the UK and America have been voting. We have been putting far right governments in office for about 20 years and they have had a plan on both sides of the pond to pack the courts. The regulatory agencies are trying to stop this but they keep losing in court for absurd reasons.
You don't even have to really change the laws if you take over the court
Re:Biden has picked some of the best people! (Score:5, Informative)
Here's Biden's initial FCC choice, Gigi Sohn speaking about Net Neutrality [youtube.com] four years ago. Last March Sohn withdrew her nomination.
Last May, Biden nominated US official Anna Gomez to chair the FCC [arstechnica.com] after the seat had been open for two years due to GOP obstruction.
Although that factoid pales in comparison compared to what a single GOP senator has done to the US Military [politico.com].
Why was Gigi Sohn given such difficult hearings? (Score:2)
In the middle of last February, Gigi Sohn was being grilled by Senate Republicans for the 3rd time, hammering Ms. Sohn on her harsh comments regarding Fox News. It was a pure partisan political act to protect the GOP's propaganda machine from the FCC under Gigi Sohn, and to cause as much delay as possible.
One week later Dominion exposed to the media via its lawsuit against Fox, that Fox knowingly lied to its viewers about whether the 2020 election was fair or not, and whether or not Joe Biden was the legiti
Re: (Score:2)
The current politicking is doing more than obstructing basic functions of government: It's tearing the GOP apart, they can no longer agree who leads them and the US House of Representatives. It requires 218 'ayes' to install a speaker and the GOP numbers only 221 representatives. If they don't agree, then Congress won't be able to pass any bills into law.
Alternatively, some Republicans could support the Democrat's candidate but it is difficult to imagine the GOP supporting the Democrat's candidate even
Re:Biden has picked some of the best people! (Score:5, Insightful)
Leadership has nothing to do with rank and file failure. This is about legal case, not the theatrical political appointee who sits in a cushy chair getting blowjobs when not on camera.
Actual problem is that Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, etc went on a hiring spree during last five years to get every single good anti-trust attorney in US. And they can offer a hell of a lot more than government can on the budget allocated. So these cases haven't been going well, because corporates have best of the best in their legal department, while government has mandatory diversity quota hires.
Re: (Score:1)
American bureaucracy doesn't work well in its current form, because it's primary purpose is not serve the supposed function, but to be an employment opportunity for dregs of the society to keep them from acting out. It's massively undersized in talent, and massively oversized in diversity hiring.
That makes it one of the most expensive and one of the least efficient bureaucracies that exist on the planet when controlled for general corruption level.
FTC and FCC are bureaucratic entities. Like everything else,
Re: (Score:2)
So you agree that beheading kittens is a good way to live?
I'm guessing that by your pivot from what I actually said to your hallucinations, you can literally create kittens and axes to behead them with out of nothing. You also clearly want to improve manufacturing of axes.
If you want to talk about what I actually said, feel free to reply. Otherwise, I will merely state that I strongly condemn the actions of beheading kittens that you just admitted to.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, they are. You should stop doing them. They clearly make you hallucinate what was said and make the strangest "so you're agreeing" replies to answers that explain disagreement in great detail.
Re: (Score:1)
the difference is i vote for people who align with the outcomes i want; i want a better functioning government with more services, i vote for the choice of candidate that supports those values, warts and all that comes with it.
OP probably votes republican (and probably trump) in which case, don't complain, be proud! you voted in the clowns whose goal it is to keep the government from working. this is what you wanted, this is what you voted for. its fucking enraging that conservatives get to explicitly ma
Re:The federal government is leaderless (Score:4, Insightful)
We put people in charge of government (Score:3, Interesting)
If I hire an auto mechanic who thinks cars are supernatural devil boxes I'm pretty sure he's not gonna fix it, and I'll be lucky if the next (real) mechanic can.
Probably is (Score:4, Insightful)
How many engineers does it take? (Score:1)
Question: How many Microsoft engineers does it take to replace a light bulb?
Answer: No Microsoft engineers are required at all, once Microsoft declares darkness to become the new standard.
Picking a losing fight (Score:2)
It might not be popular, but given all other jurisdictions approved the deal I don't think FTC is on the right side here. And this was including the EU, which is generally much more strict, and even our federal courts which tore apart FTC's case not too long ago. (Multiple times in the same week by multiple courts). A sad day indeed.
The problem is not only the loss of taxpayer resources, which is still a concern, but the apparent loss of credibility, which is very important.
Next time a "big guy" will have