Lina Khan's 2-year journey at FTC while it blocks the Microsoft-Activision deal

Lina Khan. Image: Twitter

The Federal Trade Commission, on June 12, ordered a court to block the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft Corp in an attempt to halt the deal from closing before the government’s case against the $69 billion deal is heard.

The FTC stated that Microsoft and Activision had signalled that the deal could have possibly closed on Friday itself and asked the judge to block any agreement before 11:59 p.m as it would otherwise provide Microsoft the ability to alter Activision’s content, operations and business plans.

Lina Khan has been holding the reigns of the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, with a historic track record in tech. Khan was sworn into office on June 15, 2021 and her term expires in September 2024. Currently enjoying a 3-0 majority at the FTC, if the current President of the United States, Joe Biden does not get re-elected, Khan may have a very short timeline to wrap up some highly ambitious items on her tech agenda, one that is pro-competition and pro-consumer in nature.

Industry watchers as well as former agency staff members have been commenting that Khan has been bringing attention as well as popularity to the topic of tech antitrust. "Lina has made the FTC relevant again. She’s doing stuff that Congress should be doing: taking on privacy, noncompetes, and AI,” stated Tim Wu, former White House adviser on tech, in an interview with Axios.

On the other hand, there have been beliefs that Khan could still continue her reign under a republican government as well. Having no Republican commissioners at the agency may speed things up internally, but likely makes Khan a little more cautious around controversial measures, said Daniel Francis, a former FTC deputy director of the Bureau of Competition, reported Axios.