A federal decide on Tuesday dominated in opposition to the Federal Trade Commission’s try and delay Microsoft’s $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, setting the stage for the tech big and the online game writer to merge as quickly as this month.

In a 53-page determination, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California stated the F.T.C. had failed to indicate it was prone to show that the merger was prone to end in a considerable discount in competitors that may hurt customers.

She denied the F.T.C.’s request for a preliminary injunction, which might have delayed the deal’s closing till after the company may combat it in an inside court docket.

The ruling is a major blow to the F.T.C.’s efforts to police blockbuster tech mergers extra aggressively. That technique is spearheaded by the company’s chair, Lina Khan, who has argued that Big Tech’s huge affect over commerce and communications has led to anticompetitive habits. The F.T.C. has sued Microsoft, Meta and Amazon, however it walked away from certainly one of its circumstances in opposition to Meta and has had little to indicate for its efforts up to now.

This is a growing story. Check again for updates.