FTC hits pause button on video game deal
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2022
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US Federal Trade Commission says it will sue to block Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, and KLM’s chief executive has encouraged passengers to take the train rather than fly on some short-haul journeys. Plus, the FT’s John Paul Rathbone unpacks a military milestone in the Ukraine war.
Mentioned in this podcast:
FTC sues to block Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard
KLM chief encourages passengers to take the train to cut emissions
Military briefing: Ukraine drone strikes show Russia it has ‘no safe zones’
The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson and Marc Filippino. The show’s editor is Jess Smith. Additional help by Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.3 | Learn more at equinole.co.uk |
| 0:09.8 | Good morning from the Financial Times. |
| 0:11.4 | Today is Friday, December 9th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:19.2 | An anti-trust watchdog is trying to stop a huge video game deal in the US, |
| 0:23.9 | and a European airline is encouraging some riders to take the train instead of flying. |
| 0:29.2 | Plus, Ukraine has launched an attack on Russian soil. |
| 0:32.6 | But will keep getting the firepower it needs to stay on the offensive? |
| 0:37.9 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:50.8 | The US Federal Trade Commission is suing to stop Microsoft from snapping up Activision Blizzard. |
| 0:56.4 | Microsoft was going to pay $75 billion to acquire the video game maker, |
| 1:00.8 | but the FTC stepped in yesterday to block it. |
| 1:03.7 | The FT's US Legal and Enforcement Correspondence to Fanyama has more. |
| 1:09.2 | So the FTC's main allegation in the complaint is that the deal would essentially harm |
| 1:16.5 | the gaming competitors, especially vis-a-vis Xbox consoles, but also in the cloud gaming industry. |
| 1:24.9 | And one of the points that they made is that they see Activision as one of the few |
| 1:30.5 | sort of remaining video game developers that produces, but also publishes |
| 1:35.3 | very, very popular video games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft for several devices, |
| 1:42.1 | and their sort of key thesis is essentially that this deal would allegedly change that. |
| 1:48.1 | So Microsoft released a statement yesterday after the FTC was going to sue to block the deal, |
| 1:53.3 | and here's what the statement said, quote, |
| 1:55.4 | we continue to believe that this deal will expand competition and create more opportunities |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Forhecz Topher, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Forhecz Topher and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.