Sony failed to convince an FTC judge to designate and vacate multiple subpoenas from Microsoft

Microsoft continues to expand its defense of its proposed $69 billion merger deal with Activision in the Federal Trade Commission’s Inner Court. In a recent development in the case, FTC Chief Administrative Tribunal D. Michael Chappell denied and allowed some of the company’s motions summons to court Sony served.

Part of Microsoft discovery process In building up its defense in the case, the company is gathering information from its competitors, including Sony, which has been said to be the biggest critic of the merger. To do this, the software company presented its competitor with a subpoena requiring it to share certain working data and files. Sony on the other hand described Microsoft’s subpoena is “really huge” in recently filed documents, which also asked the judge to withdraw some of the motions.

In the document The FTC said Judge Chappelle approved and denied some of Sony’s requests. At first, their request for restrictions on the depositary was denied. This contains Greg McCurdySony’s senior director of competition and regulatory affairs, who Microsoft believes has been approached by the FTC.

The judge also rejected Sony’s motion to prevent Microsoft from showing certain documents, including “the executed copy of all content license agreements you signed between Statement 1 from the President and CEO of [SIE] Jim Ryan, “SIE of FTC Statement Regarding Microsoft – Activision Blizzard Transaction” 2012 Dec 5. “

On the other hand, Judge Chappelle granted some of Sony’s requests in connection with the subpoena, including limiting documents filed to a certain date (January 1, 2019 to the present).

It should be noted that Sony called Microsoft’s investigation requests “obvious harassment” and said it would cost about $2 million to provide the files from the seven guards agreed upon by both parties. But with the new command, the Japanese company will have to follow suit.