Bloomberg quoted sources on Feb. 1 as saying that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will launch an antitrust review of Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

To strengthen the merger guidelines, the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a joint statement last month. The statement noted that industries have become increasingly concentrated, with a surge in combined filings in 2020 and 2021 indicating that the situation will worsen.