5 big deal reports: Microsoft/Activision deal on temporary halt in the U.S.

Here is your Pro Recap of 5 head-turning deal dispatches you may have missed last week: a temporary halt on Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal, likely approval of Broadcom/VMware deal, UK CMA’s approval of Amazon/iRobot, and merger deals at NASDAQ/Adenza and Patterson-UTI Energy/NexTier.

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US FTC seeks court intervention to halt Microsoft's acquisition of Activision

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requested a court to temporarily halt Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) acquisition of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI), according to a Reuters report last Monday.

The FTC expressed concern that Microsoft and Activision were indicating the deal's imminent closure, possibly by Friday, and thus urged a federal judge to prevent any final agreement before that time.

The temporary halt to the acquisition had been granted by a U.S. judge on Tuesday in response to the FTC's request, with a hearing scheduled for this week.

The FTC argued that such a deal would grant Microsoft the ability and a heightened incentive to restrict Activision's content in ways that significantly reduce competition. In early December, the FTC, responsible for enforcing antitrust law, had already approached an in-house administrative judge to block the transaction on antitrust grounds. Their contention was that it would grant Microsoft's Xbox exclusive access to Activision games, leaving Nintendo consoles and Sony's (NYSE:SONY) PlayStation at a disadvantage.

Microsoft president Brad Smith expressed his willingness to present their case in federal court. Activision did not comment.

Broadcom/VMware $61 billion deal likely receives EU approval

VMware (NYSE:VMW) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) shares surged 4% and 6% last Monday after Reuters reported that Broadcom is likely to receive conditional approval from the EU antitrust authority for its planned purchase of VMware, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The approval from the European Commission is contingent upon Broadcom implementing measures to ensure interoperability with competitors, sources said.

Both Broadcom and the EU antitrust watchdog declined to provide any comments on the matter.

iRobot stock jumps 21% after UK CMA approves Amazon’s acquisition

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT). As a result iRobot shares jumped more than 21% on Friday.

The CMA conducted an investigation and determined that the deal does not raise competition concerns in the UK. However, the acquisition is still under review by regulators in other jurisdictions. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has requested documents from both companies to further assess the purpose and rationale of the deal. iRobot has stated that the companies will cooperate with the FTC investigation, which typically takes about a year.

2 more merger deals

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Adenza from the private equity giant Thoma Bravo, as InvestingPro reported in real time. The deal, first rumored by the Wall Street Journal early Monday last week, will have NASDAQ pay a total of $10.5B in cash and stock.

Patterson-UTI Energy (NASDAQ:PTEN) shares jumped more than 12% on Thursday following the announcement that it had entered into a merger agreement with NexTier Oilfield Solutions (NYSE:NEX) to combine in an all-stock merger of equals.

Under the terms of the $5.4B deal, NexTier shareholders will receive 0.7520 shares of Patterson-UTI common stock for each share of NexTier common stock. Upon closing, Patterson-UTI shareholders will own 55% and NexTier shareholders will own 45% of the combined company.

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