The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this morning filed a lawsuit in court to prevent Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard from proceeding. The suit was filed after more than two weeks of rumors saying it would be heard.
The FTC blocked the purchase because it wanted to prevent Microsoft from buying multiple video game studios that would prevent competition from other manufacturers. Before the FTC, these purchases were also investigated by consumer bodies in Europe. Previously Microsoft had agreed to provide the Call of Duty series on Sony consoles for a decade and committed to offering it to Nintendo and Valve consoles. These actions may be seen as insufficient to prevent Microsoft from monopolizing the market. The purchase of Activision Blizzard worth almost $70 billion was announced by Microsoft in early January.
Microsoft has been investigated several times by anti-monopoly bodies, with one of the most famous incidents being Internet Explorer included in every Windows operating system. According to Bill Gates, this investigation is the reason why Windows Phone failed because he was unable to fully focus on launching a smartphone operating system.