UK appeals court denies antitrust regulator request to delay Activision/Microsoft trial
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A UK court denied a request by the country's antitrust regulator to delay a hearing on Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) appeal to the agency's block of its $69 billion Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI) acquisition.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal denied a request on Wednesday from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority for the adjournment of the hearing until October, according to a filing on the court's website on Thursday.
The main hearing in the appeal is set for July 28, with a time estimate of six days for the length of the trial.
"We consider that the CMA has not paid sufficient heed to the true public interest in this case â which is the swift resolution of Microsoftâs Notice," the Competition Appeal Tribunal wrote in its opinion. "The CMA has chosen to re-visit a matter already decided (namely, an end July/early August hearing and not an October hearing) when there has been no material change of circumstance.:
The latest development in the Activision (ATVI) deal comes as the fifth and final day of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's attempt to block the videogame megadeal is set to begin in San Francisco on Thursday.
The UK antitrust regulator sued in April to block the deal, citing concerns about cloud gaming.
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