At their 14th annual awards ceremony held in Washington, D.C. on April 9, Global Competition Review (GCR) recognized Wilkinson Stekloff for its work as lead trial counsel for Microsoft in the FTC’s challenge to Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. – the second-largest merger trial in American history and the biggest involving a technology company. The transaction was selected for “Matter of the Year,” which honors “creative, strategic, and innovative work by teams of in-house and external lawyers and economists” across all competition matters worldwide, as well as “Control Matter of the Year: Americas.”
The go-to firm for clients who want to litigate cases with an eye toward trial rather than settlement, Wilkinson Stekloff has served as litigation counsel for Microsoft since the day after the acquisition was announced in January 2022. Led by Founding Partner Beth Wilkinson and Partner Rakesh Kilaru, the firm’s team positioned the case for a federal court victory on an unprecedented timetable, defeating the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the transaction after a five-day trial that began less than two weeks after the FTC filed its federal court complaint. The deal closed on October 13, 2023.