Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard in a Massive Deal Valued at $68.7 Billion

[Tsing]

Image: Microsoft



Microsoft has decided to follow up its $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda with another major purchase that is sure to shake up the game industry.



As confirmed in multiple press releases shared by the companies today, Microsoft has agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion. Activision Blizzard requires little introduction to gamers, as it’s the holding company behind iconic franchises such as Call of Duty and Warcraft.



“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe...

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[Grimlakin]

I love how in that statement they never once mentioned world of warcraft. Something tells me they will be spinning that off into it's own entity to die on the vine.

 

[Shotglass01]

I don't know what to say. On one hand, Activision sucks. On the other, so can Microsoft. Maybe Amazon can just buy EA already and Apple Steam. Let's just be done with it all and roll everything in to Disney+. \_(ツ)_/

 

[LazyGamer]

I don't know what to say. On one hand, Activision sucks. On the other, so can Microsoft. Maybe Amazon can just buy EA already and Apple Steam. Let's just be done with it all and roll everything in to Disney+. \_(ツ)_/

For all of the justifiable hate that Microsoft gets, on the gaming side they're doing very well. Especially if one uses Activision as a measuring stick.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I agree. This could be a sideways move but it's too soon to say. Interesting to say the least though. It also goes a way to explain all that "house cleaning" Blizzard did recently. Sure it happens all the time but even then it was a little questionable in how this one happened.

https://www.thefpsreview.com/2021/1...rs-for-call-of-duty-developer-raven-software/

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

So at this point we're down to the following companies who own, or have involvement in owning just about everyone else in terms of AAA studios.

EA
Ubisoft
Embracer Group
Microsoft
Sony
Capcom

 

[Denpepe]

So at this point we're down to the following companies who own, or have involvement in owning just about everyone else in terms of AAA studios.

EA
Ubisoft
Embracer Group
Microsoft
Sony
Capcom

Nope, but I don't know all the fine details about how all these companies are intertwined but from memory

Sega
Nintendo
2K Games
Tencent
Paradox interactive
Square-Enix

 

[Brian_B]

So at this point we're down to the following companies who own, or have involvement in owning just about everyone else in terms of AAA studios.

EA
Ubisoft
Embracer Group
Microsoft
Sony
Capcom

TenCent

*edit* What Denpepe said

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Nope, but I don't know all the fine details about how all these companies are intertwined but from memory

Sega
Nintendo
2K Games
Tencent
Paradox interactive
Square-Enix

2K is lumped into Embracer. Browse through those stories and you'll quickly see how they've gobbled up a ton of studios in the last couple of years. Not so sure about Paradox either as it has gone through some changes in recent years. Seems like they're still on their own but there might be things happening in the backround.

Sega, Nintendo, Square Enix(I should've remembered them considering how much I like Tomb Raider and Guardians), Tencent(although ironically I often don't think of them as a publisher even though I do use Epic)-spot on.

Edit: Nintendo does have some involvement with Sega. https://retroonly.com/was-sega-bought-by-nintendo/

 

[Denpepe]

2K is lumped into Embracer. Browse through those stories and you'll quickly see how they've gobbled up a ton of studios in the last couple of years. Not so sure about Paradox either as it has gone through some changes in recent years. Seems like they're still on their own but there might be things happening in the backround.

I mostly said 2K because they bought some game studio the other day but like I said I don't know all the fine details of how some things are structured

 

[Grimlakin]

Makes Dell buying EMC seem lesser. How is it that Activision blizzard is worth more than EMC.

 

[Brian_B]

Seems to be the standard capitolist economic cycle

1) An upstart kickstarts some new type of industry, it seems to catch with the public - early adopter Make or Break phase
2) Huge burst of growth - lots of new startups, big companies trying to get in on it - the Wild West phase, everyone still trying to figure it out
3) Industry starts to consolidate as the market starts to define itself - Big fish start swallowing little fish, growth at any cost
4) Eventually you get down to just a handful of players dominating the market and pushing/buying everyone else out - the Souless Corporate phase, profit becomes the dominating motive
5) Some new industry becomes hot and the cycle repeats

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I mostly said 2K because they bought some game studio the other day but like I said I don't know all the fine details of how some things are structured

It's all good. If I wasn't writing here I wouldn't have a clue about any of it. It's become pretty insane how quickly the growth phases for the big publishers have gotten during the pandemic. Seems like we're posting a story on someone buying something about once every other week or so anymore.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Seems to be the standard capitolist economic cycle

1) An upstart kickstarts some new type of industry, it seems to catch with the public - early adopter Make or Break phase
2) Huge burst of growth - lots of new startups, big companies trying to get in on it - the Wild West phase, everyone still trying to figure it out
3) Industry starts to consolidate as the market starts to define itself - Big fish start swallowing little fish, growth at any cost
4) Eventually you get down to just a handful of players dominating the market and pushing/buying everyone else out - the Souless Corporate phase, profit becomes the dominating motive
5) Some new industry becomes hot and the cycle repeats

Yep. I remember in the late 90s-early 2000s becoming aware of all of the American automotive manufacturers buying up things around the planet. Then the recession hit and many things were resold again. Someone I knew back then had a book along the lines of Current History of Cars (or somesuch) that had a global map of all the partnerships and current ownerships. It was fascinating.

I've also been fascinated when @Paul_Johnson explains what's really under the hood for various PSUs and how somebody most of us have never heard of that's been around for decades is really making the guts of that name brand product. I also remember during the 80s and 90s watching GE buy up just about anything that was small fry and it getting assimilated into products or the reverse with GEs name going on their products. I had friends that were into snowboarding and skateboarding who used to tell me similar stories as well.

 

[Nanobot]

Nice press release by MS. So much more meat to this story. Kotick is scum.