A new success for Microsoft and its plans to buy Activision Blizzard Kingand another setback for the FTC and the more than dubious strategy it has pursued in recent months to try to prevent the operation from being completed. And I say this regardless of whether the outcome of this acquisition is positive or negative, I am focusing on the unprecedented and debatable manner of proceeding and, consequently, the damage it has caused to the image of the American regulator.

As you may recall, earlier this week we learned that the courts had sided with Microsoft in the FTC’s mid-June lawsuit seeking the regulator’s approval of a preliminary injunction preventing the purchase until the issuance of his final opinion, which does not have a date at the moment. As they say, the devil is in the details, and why do I say that? Because the date the FTC chose to file this lawsuit was close enough to the deadline set by the parties, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, to complete the purchase.

In other words, everything points to it the FTC’s goal was to make the purchase legally impossible to complete, from which we can infer that he was confident that the legal statement would be delayed until after the July 18th deadline, but he failed. However, in addition to appealing that ruling, the regulator also appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit just two days later, again seeking an injunction that would temporarily block (after the deadline) any chance of completing the deal.

Well, as I said at the beginning, a new setback for the regulator, because according to what we can read on Yahoo! Finance, An appeals court denied the FTC’s request to temporarily block Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. That way, it will be greenlit again (although, of course, pending the resolution of the appeal filed by the FTC and its expected opinion) for operation in the United States. So there are only two days left, so what happens in the UK in the negotiations between Microsoft and the CMA will be quite decisive, although we must remember that Microsoft has not been closed to the possibility of proceeding with its plans, even without the consent of the British regulator.

As I said at the beginning, regardless of whether one is for or against surgery, It’s still amazing how the FTC acted. Since, as we see, you seem to be entirely opposed to the operation, and that it is your prerogative to block it in your country, why have you not issued an opinion against it? Instead, it decided to play cat and mouse and go to court in a strategy that proved to be a total failure and which undoubtedly already had a very direct impact on the image of the regulator.

Indeed, some voices confirm that the blocking of the operation with the application of the penalty and its application to the Court of Appeal is one of the two reasons for carrying out these actions. Next is prevent current FTC President Lina Khan from having to go to the US Congress to answer some questionsprecisely about their performance in this process.