The Federal Trade Commission says it is appealing a judge's ruling that would have allowed Microsoft to close its deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard.
A Wednesday court filing from the FTC says it is appealing it to the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Antitrust enforcers at the FTC have been trying to stop Microsoft's $68.7 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, maker of popular game franchises like Call of Duty, arguing it will harm competition in the video game industry.
But in a Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the FTC's request to block the deal from closing. She said the FTC hadn't shown that the merger would cause serious harm and was unlikely to prevail if it took the case to a full trial.
Microsoft had promised to pay Activision Blizzard a $3 billion breakup fee if it can't close the deal by Tuesday, which will mark 18 months since it was announced. But both companies could also agree to delay that deadline.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults โ two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
Weinstein,... Read More