Microsoft has responded to the FTC’s claims that Microsoft laying off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees runs counter to its representations in court. “Activision was already planning on eliminating a significant number of jobs while still operating as an independent company,” says Microsoft lawyers in a new filing today. The FTC is still appealing a district court’s decision not to block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Here’s Microsoft spokesperson Becca Dougherty on the FTC’s filing:
In continuing its opposition to the deal, the FTC ignores the reality that the deal itself has substantially changed. Since the FTC lost in court last July, Microsoft was required by the UK competition authority to restructure the acquisition globally and therefore did not acquire the cloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzard games in the United States. Additionally, Sony and Microsoft signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation on even better terms than Sony had before.
