Daily Compliance News: May 21, 2025, The I Want You Back Edition
Shout Outs and Rants: Episode 153, The CW 25 Edition
Episode 271 -- Deep Dive into Microsoft's OFAC Settlement for $3 Million
Everything Dynamic Everywhere: Managing a More Collaborative Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 and the Age of Automation
Compliance Into The Weeds - Antitrust Issues in Microsoft Acquisition of Activision Blizzard
Everything Compliance - Episode 93 - The Activision Blizzard Edition
Microsoft Week on Innovation in Compliance -Legal Compliance for The Future with Alan Gibson
Keeping Up with M365 Software Updates
Efficiently and Defensibly Addressing Microsoft Teams Data
M365 in 5 – Part 7: Teams Audio/Video (A/V) Conferencing
M365 in 5 – Part 6: Teams Channels – The virtual collaboration workspace
M365 in 5 – Part 5: Teams Chats – Modern communications
M365 in 5 – Part 4: Teams – An introduction to collaboration
M365 in 5 – Part 3: OneDrive for Business – Protected personal collaboration
M365 in 5 – Part 2: SharePoint Online – The new file-share environment
M365 in 5 – Part 1: Exchange Online – Not just a mailbox
Episode 104 -- A Deep Dive into the Microsoft FCPA Settlement
This Week in FCPA-Episode 164, week ending July 26, 2019 – the Microsoft and Facebook settle edition
Is the Patent Litigation Boom Coming to an End?
On May 7, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court opinion that denied the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) motion for a preliminary injunction against Microsoft’s acquisition of...more
Does anybody remember Napster? Launched in June 1999, the revolutionary peer-to-peer music sharing platform peaked at 80 million music lovers worldwide. It famously fell from greatness into bankruptcy three years later after...more
On February 29, 2024, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an opinion on Sjunde AP-Fonden v. Activision Blizzard1 (“Opinion”) that called into question established market practices for mergers, including (i) the process for...more
In the ever-evolving world of gaming and esports, Microsoft’s monumental $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has not only reshaped the industry but also navigated a complex path of antitrust scrutiny. Over the...more
The "European Antitrust Bimonthly Bulletin" breaks down the major antitrust developments in Europe during the past two months into concise and actionable takeaways....more
Last month, we discussed where things stand regarding Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Blizzard, Inc. (“Activision”) in light of domestic and international challenges to the proposed deal. This week, the...more
Antitrust enforcers remained active across the globe, with the announcement by the FTC and DOJ of proposed guidelines that have an emphasis on tech mergers in the United States, and several investigations of major tech deals...more
This past Tuesday, July 11, a federal judge ruled against the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) request to the District Court of Northern California to issue a preliminary injunction against Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion...more
On July 10, 2023, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) request to grant a preliminary injunction of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of...more
The start of 2023 has been a busy one, with global antitrust agencies advancing investigations and challenging a number of technology acquisitions. Future antitrust enforcement could also be shaped by new digital market...more
On April 26, 2023, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard over concerns the deal “would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming...more
2022 saw a major uptick in antitrust scrutiny and enforcement, primarily related to vertical transactions by large technology companies. Meta/Within, Microsoft/Activision, and Broadcom/VMware (among others) faced resistance...more
On December 8, 2022, the same day that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) delivered its opening arguments to a federal judge in California in the FTC’s bid to halt Meta’s acquisition of virtual reality gaming company Within,...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an administrative complaint to block Microsoft Corporation’s (Microsoft’s) nearly $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Activision), the largest video game acquisition...more
Two major technology companies, Meta and Microsoft, continue to defend their acquisitions against challenges from antitrust regulators. The FTC dropped one of the two claims underlying its challenge of Meta’s acquisition of...more
In July 2022, the FTC brought an enforcement action to enjoin Meta’s acquisition of virtual reality app maker Within. The FTC’s approach in that complaint could have implications for Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of...more
Target and Walmart may have taken it on the chin last quarter, but solid results from other retailers—from Macy’s to the Dollars (Tree and General)—“defied Wall Street’s expectations” and helped boost stocks on Thursday. The...more
Jobs Report Friday again, and general consensus is that with the Omicron surge hitting smack dab in the middle of January hiring, these numbers are going to be weird. Very weird...more
Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast that takes a deep dive into a compliance-related topic, literally going into the weeds to explore a subject more fully. This week, Matt and I are pleased to host Mike...more
Next up for Activision Blizzard, which we noted yesterday was in the midst of a 6-month process of shedding employees associated with a harassment scandal rocking its ranks: a new corporate owner. Microsoft announced its...more
India’s Reliance Industries is considering acquiring TikTok’s business in India from ByteDance. We recently discussed the growing distrust by companies and countries of TikTok because of the perceived vulnerability of user...more
On August 6, 2020, President Trump issued two nearly parallel executive orders (EOs) targeting the enormously popular apps TikTok and WeChat: Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok (TikTok EO), and Executive...more
On 6 December 2016, the European Commission cleared the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft, subject to Microsoft granting LinkedIn’s competitors access to certain LinkedIn tools....more
A NY state court threw out Ace Decade Holdings’ suit against UBS accusing the Swiss lender of fraud for its $500 million investment loss in a Chinese company. The court found that jurisdictional issues plagued plaintiff’s...more
The IRS isn’t waiting around for virtual currency to gain wider acceptance. No, it’s more than happy to go after Bitcoin users who have sought to use the virtual currency as a means of evading taxes....more