A US court ruling that Microsoft’s proposed $69bn takeover of Activision Blizzard can proceed despite anti-trust objections from the Federal Trade Commission, has provided a major boost for merger-arbitrage investors, according to a report by Bloomberg.
A US court ruling that Microsoft’s proposed $69bn takeover of Activision Blizzard can proceed despite anti-trust objections from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has provided a major boost for merger-arbitrage investors, according to a report by Bloomberg.
While the Biden administration has been pursuing an aggressive “trust-busting” agenda via the FCA under chair Lina Khana, the ruling will boost fund returns and embolden bets on other deals in the regulator’s sights, writes Bloomberg.
Activision’s stock price has increased by about 9% since the ruling, benefitting merger-arbitrage investors who have been betting on the takeover deal proceeding. The gap between Broadcom’s offer for VMware and the company’s stock price meanwhile, has narrowed to the smallest in two months helped by European approval for the proposed $61bn deal.
And shares in iRobot Corp have also gained this week, despite the company’s proposed sale to Amazon.com being subject to an FTC anti-trust review.
