Sony ordered to cough up trade secrets to Microsoft amid opposition to Activision Blizzard merger

Sony might be regretting its fierce opposition of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard now that it has been ordered to reveal some of its trade secrets to the company as a result of its push to block the acquisition.

The purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft has endured many challenges in many different courts throughout the world, but the three that Microsoft has been pressed on most so far have been Europe from the European Commission, the U.K.’s Competition and Market’s Authority, and the U.S. from the Federal Trade Commission. In both fights, Sony has made its opinion on the acquisition very clear, and now it’s coming back to bite the company.

First noticed by Game Rant, a new ruling granted a subpoena from Microsoft requesting a few different trade secrets such as Sony’s exclusivity deals and records from the past four years from the company in regard to information that might help Microsoft with its argument to the FTC about why the purchase should proceed.

Although Microsoft initially asked for the last 10 years of records, Sony successfully argued that it would take too much effort to sort through that many documents, so the order was granted on a limited basis. Sony will still have to turn over documents related to commitments signed since 2019, although the limitations were issued due to the relevancy of the documents rather than Sony’s inability to sift through 10 years of documents in a timely manner.

Not only has Sony taken a loss in regard to revealing trade secrets to its biggest adversary, but it also will likely not succeed in blocking the acquisition. Sony’s attempts to oppose the deal were made that much harder after Microsoft gained licensing deals with both Nvidia and Nintendo, which significantly impacted the EU’s regulatory bodies in a positive way to allow the purchase to go through. A decision from the European Commission is set to be made by April 25 on the matter.

The battle will continue in the U.S. with the FTC, which has put a bigger magnifying glass on the deal. The regulatory body sued to block the deal from happening, and the U.K. CMA claims that the deal would harm gamers by reducing too much of the competition.