The FTC has won some time but I don’t know if this counts as a first round win. Nevertheless, things are pressing on and Microsoft currently cannot close the transaction to claim Activision Blizzard as its newest member of Xbox Game Studios.

The US Federal court granted the FTC a temporary injunction which prevents Microsoft from finalizing the purchase of Activision Blizzard as per the agency’s request after being worried that Microsoft was ready to close the transaction anytime beginning this week.

As part of the order, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard cannot complete their deal until “after 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on the fifth business day after the Court rules on the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction” or a date set by the court (whichever is later). 

The court has also set an evidentiary hearing on the preliminary injunction for June 22nd and 23rd, so pretty much if FTC’s short-term action was to win time, they got it.

Microsoft has welcomed the injunction since it was revealed yesterday as a way to the company expressing on how can deal with any concerns and basically, making things move forward as if FTC fails on this one, pretty much, there is nothing that can stop the acquisition (maybe even if CMA’s process on UK still ongoing).

What could be an issue is that if the deal doesn’t close by the July 18th deadline and no agreement on extending the period (which include renegotiating price probably at Activision Blizzard’s favor), the deal is off and Microsoft is obligated to pay Activision Blizzard a $3 billion breakup fee.