Microsoft and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have both filed a mutual “stay of litigation” in the case of Microsoft’s appeal.

After a US court ruled against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier today, it’s given Microsoft leverage to discuss the deal with the CMA.

The CMA remains the largest governing body blocking Microsoft’s deal to acquire Activision-Blizzard but with the FTC out of the picture for now, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to just ignore the CMA.

Rather than risk ruining business relations with the UK, the CMA seems to think it’s in their best interest to renegotiate with Microsoft. The alternative is to risk losing to Microsoft as the FTC did in the courts.