Microsoft says FTC’s ‘claimed emergency’ is ‘of its own creation,’ Verge reports

Microsoft (MSFT) responded to the FTC’s emergency motion attempting to stay a ruling by Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley earlier this week over the Xbox maker’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), saying that “the FTC’s claimed emergency is entirely of its own creation” because the agency did not seek an injunction through federal court until six weeks before the deal close, The Verge’s Tom Warren reports. Microsoft also alleges that the FTC could have filed its request for emergency relief earlier, the author notes. “The Court should not mistake the FTC’s litigation gamesmanship for an emergency meriting this Court’s deviation from the ordinary appellate process,” Microsoft said, adding that the FTC has committed “the cardinal sin of antitrust: mistaking competitive disadvantage for a particular competitor (Sony) with harm to competition and consumers.”