Microsoft’s biggest acquisition to date is a $ 69 billion bet on the future of video games

A week after the Grand Theft Auto publisher made a major acquisition, the company behind it … [+] “Call of Duty” is making even bigger deals.

2018 Bloomberg Finance LP

Microsoft MSFT announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Activision Blizzard ATVI, a well-known but scandal-stricken video game publisher, for $ 68.7 billion in cash. This is the clearest sign of the company’s ambition to become a giant in the gaming world.

This is a vertical merger that makes Microsoft the world’s third-largest video game company in terms of revenue, and already includes the publisher behind Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush, including Xbox. Bring it to the stables. , GamePass subscription platform and host of best-selling games. This is also a move that could draw the attention of antitrust regulators, given both the size of the transaction and Microsoft’s position as a tech giant.

If it goes through a rally, this will be the largest acquisition in the history of video games, surpassing Take-Two Interactive’s TTWO deal to buy Zynga ZNGA for $ 12.7 billion announced just eight days ago. This is one of the largest acquisitions in any sector in the last few years and is a true mega deal that could usher in larger transactions in the coming months. Perhaps the wave of M & A that involved the corporate world in 2021 has not yet reached its peak.

And this is Microsoft’s largest acquisition in history, surpassing LinkedIn’s $ 26.2 billion acquisition in 2016. The next biggest acquisition in corporate history is still underway and probably still suspicious. Microsoft agreed to acquire it last year. Nuance Communications NUAN, a conversational AI specialist, costs $ 19.7 billion, but the move has recently attracted the attention of UK antitrust regulators.

Going a little further down the list of Microsoft’s biggest acquisitions, you’ll come across two deals that are clearly tied to today’s news. Last year, the company completed the $ 7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, the gaming studio behind the massive Fallout and Doom franchise. And in 2014, Microsoft invested $ 2.5 billion to buy Mojang, the creator of “Minecraft.”

Activision Blizzard is much larger than any of these targets. And in the last few months, it has also become much, much more controversial. Last July, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against the company on widespread sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other ugly charges, evoking a cultural reputation for treating women at Activision Blizzard. The Wall Street Journal today reported that long-time CEO Bobby Kotick, who has been accused of concealing rape allegations, will not play a role in the company if the deal is closed.

Microsoft will operate Activision Blizzard as a subsidiary of Microsoft Gaming. The subsidiary will be led by the new Chief Executive Officer, Phil Spencer, who is now responsible for Xbox. One way to read this deal is to bid for exclusive rights, and Microsoft wants to keep Activision Blizzard games only on the Xbox and its Game Pass service (a kind of video game streaming platform) and away from its rivals. .. But in an interview with Bloomberg, Spencer said he didn’t, and said he didn’t intend to pull the Activision Blizzard game away from Sony’s platform. Don’t be afraid, PlayStation 5 gamers.

Another way to read this deal is as a bet on the Metaverse. Microsoft is one of the leading technology companies that has spent serious resources creating immersive virtual worlds. Video games are quite different from the metaverse that all Web 3.0 visionaries envision, but they are clearly overlapping. However, the main motivation behind this deal seems likely to be dominating the gaming industry. After all, the Metaverse is still a fictional cultural epidemic. Video games already exist and the industry’s growth is only accelerating in the pandemic. At this point, there is little reason to think that it is not as mainstream in 21st century entertainment as it is in 20th century television.

That’s why this is a huge deal in so many ways, apart from huge price tags. And that’s also why we expect to learn the ideas of Lina Khan, who will be acquired in the coming months.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevindowd/2022/01/19/microsofts-biggest-acquisition-ever-is-a-69-billion-bet-on-the-future-of-video-games/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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