Starting today at 8:30 a.m. PT and over the course of the next week, executives from Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will make their way up to the 19th floor of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco to try to defend the former’s whopping $68.7 billion deal for the latter.
The hearing that starts today is in advance of the formal trial slated for August. But just recently, on June 12, the Federal Trade Commission filed a separate lawsuit against Microsoft and Activision—this one trying to temporarily block the acquisition before the August trial, as the FTC asserted that Microsoft and Activision were “seriously contemplating” going ahead and closing the acquisition ahead of time, and they wanted to put a stop to it. Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.
And so, it all begins: Evidence will be shown, executives will speak—all a couple of months before we were initially anticipating.
The acquisition—which would be Microsoft’s largest in its nearly five-decade history—is a landmark case, for both the gaming industry as well as the rest of the market. The current administration hasn’t been afraid to throw a wrench in corporate plans to scale. It appears that Adobe’s planned $20 billion acquisition of design startup Figma is under threat from the Department of Justice, as Bloomberg reported in February (this one is apparently not looking good to the EU, either). For its part, Microsoft’s Activision deal was approved in the European Union, though it was just recently blocked in the U.K. (Microsoft is appealing).
This week, the FTC is requesting that Microsoft be frozen from acquiring any Activision stock, assets, or anything else until the FTC can more formally lay out its case.
Here are some of those scheduled to testify:
- Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
- Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard
- Amy Hood, CFO of Microsoft
- Armin Zerza, CFO of Activision Blizzard
- Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming
- Tim Stuart, CFO of Microsoft Gaming
- Matt Booty, Microsoft’s head of Xbox Game Studios
- Steve Singer of Nintendo
- Phil Eisler, Nvidia’s vice president and general manager of GeForce NOW Cloud Gaming
- Jeff Fisher, Nvidia’s senior vice president of GeForce
- Pete Hines of Microsoft subsidiary Bethesda Softworks
- Dov Zimring of Google’s Stadia
- Sarah Bond, corporate vice president of gaming ecosystem at Microsoft
- Jamie Lawyer, senior finance director at Microsoft
- Lori Wright, corporate vice president at Microsoft
There’s a lot on the agenda—and a whole lot at stake.
See you tomorrow,
Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
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Jackson Fordyce curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- DexCare, a Seattle-based patient demand and care access platform, raised $75 million in Series C funding led by ICONIQ Growth.
- Volt, a London-based infrastructure provider for real-time payments, raised $60 million in Series B funding. IVP led the round and was joined by CommerzVentures, EQT Ventures, Augmentum Fintech PLC, and Fuel Ventures.
- Render, a San Francisco-based cloud application hosting platform for developers and teams, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Addition, General Catalyst, and the South Park Commons Fund.
- Warp, a New York-based terminal design company for developers, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Sequoia Capital led the round and was joined by Figma cofounder and CEO Dylan Field, GV, Neo, BoxGroup, Jeff Weiner, Marc Benioff, Sam Altman, and others.
- DREST, a London-based mobile gaming company, raised £15 million ($19.13 million) of funding from the family office of Graham Edwards.
- Outbound AI, a Seattle-based conversation A.I. platform for the health care industry, raised $16 million in seed funding. Madrona Venture Group and SpringRock Ventures co-led the round and were joined by Epic Ventures, Ascend, and KCRise Fund.
- Leap, a New York-based retail platform for brands, raised $15 million in funding. BAM Elevate and Costanoa Ventures co-led the round and were joined by Equal Ventures, Hyde Park Ventures, and others.
- Oso, a New York-based authorization platform for developers, raised $15 million in Series A-1 funding. Felicis led the round and was joined by Sequoia and Harpoon Ventures.
- System Initiative, a San Francisco-based intelligent automation platform for devops, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Scale Venture Partners.
- GreenPlaces, a Raleigh, N.C.-based sustainability platform, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Redpoint Ventures led the round and was joined by Felicis, Tishman Speyer Ventures, and Bull City Venture Partners.
- Supercritical, a London-based carbon removal marketplace, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and was joined by RTP Global, Greencode Ventures, MMC Ventures, and others.
- beehiiv, a New York-based newsletter platform, raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Social Leverage, Creator Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, and Contrarian Thinking Capital.
- CleanHub, a Berlin-based ocean plastic prevention company, raised $7 million in funding. Integra Partners and Lakestar co-led the round and were joined by Silence VC, 468 Capital, and Übermorgen Ventures.
- Alvys, a Solana Beach, Calif.-based operating system for middle-mile logistics companies, raised $6.3 million in seed funding. Bonfire Ventures led the round and was joined by RTP Global and other angels.
- goodbuy, a Boise, Idaho-based e-commerce platform connecting small businesses with consumers, raised $6.3 million in seed funding. StageDotO Ventures led the round and was joined by Capital Eleven and others.
- Turbine, a Budapest- and London-based cell simulation platform, raised an additional €5.5 million ($6.04 million) in funding from MassMutual Ventures.
- Cargobot, a Miami-based digital freight company, raised $6 million in Series A funding. BPBI led the round and was joined by Total Management 2 and others.
- Macro Trials, a Los Angeles-based research platform for clinical trials, raised $6 million in seed funding. MBX Capital led the round and was joined by INITIATE Ventures, Healthy VC, Inflect Health, and Village Global.
- Oliva, a Norwich, U.K.-based mental health support provider to employees, raised €5 million ($5.49 million) in funding. Molten Ventures led the round and was joined by Stride VC, Alumni Ventures, and other angels.
- nyra health, a Vienna, Austria-based digital therapy platform for neurological patients, raised €4.5 million ($4.93 million) in seed funding co-led by MassMutual Ventures and Wellington Partners.
- bitewell, a Denver-based corporate food health benefits provider, raised $4.1 million in seed funding. Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Fund and Refinery Ventures co-led the round and were joined by Trybe Ventures, Mudita Venture Partners, Harvest Ridge Capital, BDMI, and others.
- Highwood Emissions Management, a Calgary, Canada-based emissions management software and services firm, raised $3 million in seed funding. Energy Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Veritec Ventures.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Flexpoint Ford agreed to acquire Baker Hill, a Carmel, Ind.-based loan origination, risk management, and analytics software company. Baker Hill is a portfolio company of The Riverside Company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Harvest Partners Ascend acquired a majority stake in Sparq, an Atlanta-based digital engineering provider. Financial terms were not disclosed
- Kudu Investment Management acquired a minority stake in Martis Capital Management, a San Francisco- and Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Levine Leichtman Capital Partners acquired SEV, a Burbank, Calif.-based medspas operator and manager. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- North Branch Capital acquired a majority stake in ControlByWeb, a Nibley, Utah-based industrial Internet of Things control products and systems manufacturer and designer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Topspin Consumer Partners acquired the consumer products division of Three Dog Bakery, a Kansas City-based dog treats company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- XDimensional Technologies, backed by Serent Capital, acquired I-Engineering, a Shelton, Conn.-based insurance software firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- Bain Capital Special Situation acquired an approximately 20% stake in Intel Corporation’s IMS Nanofabrication, a Brunn am Gebirge, Austria-based mask writers producer and developer for the semiconductor industry. The deal values IMS at approximately $4.3 billion.
- Stirling Square Capital Partners acquired Infobric, a Jönköping, Sweden-based construction technology and services company, from Summa Equity. Financial terms were not disclosed.
PEOPLE
- Crossbeam Venture Partners, a New York-based venture capital firm, hired Grant Miller as vice president of operations. Formerly, he was with SC.Holdings.
- Madrona Venture Labs, a Seattle-based startup studio, hired Larry Colagiovanni and Jay Bartot as partners. Formerly, Colagiovanni was with Limeade and Bartot was with Zeitworks.
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