Starting today at 8:30 a.m. PT and over the course of the next week, executives from Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will make their way up to the 19th floor of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco to try to defend the former’s whopping $68.7 billion deal for the latter.
The hearing that starts today is in advance of the formal trial slated for August. But just recently, on June 12, the Federal Trade Commission filed a separate lawsuit against Microsoft and Activision—this one trying to temporarily block the acquisition before the August trial, as the FTC asserted that Microsoft and Activision were “seriously contemplating” going ahead and closing the acquisition ahead of time, and they wanted to put a stop to it. Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.
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