May 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission

dropped a case that sought to block Microsoft's ( MSFT )

$69-billion purchase of "Call of Duty" maker Activision

Blizzard, saying on Thursday that pursuing the case against the

long-closed deal was not in the public interest.

The FTC lost an appeal on May 7 seeking to reverse a judge's

decision declining to block the deal, which closed in 2023.

When challenging a new merger, the FTC typically asks a

judge to temporarily block the deal to give the agency time to

challenge it in its own administrative court. But deals that are

temporarily blocked are often abandoned.

Though the FTC lost its case seeking to block the deal

temporarily, the agency could have sought to unwind the

acquisition at a trial that was scheduled for July.

The Activision Blizzard transaction marked the largest-ever

acquisition in the video gaming market. The FTC claimed the

tie-up would allow Microsoft ( MSFT ) to fend off competitors to the Xbox

console and to its subscription and cloud-based gaming business.