?? Biggest deal in the gaming industry: Microsoft wants to spend 68.7 billion US dollars on Activision Blizzard
?? Activision Blizzard also includes “Call of Duty” & Co.: It would not be the first time that games are exclusive to Xbox users
?? After the abuse scandal: Microsoft wants a corporate culture of “proactive inclusion [
] Expand Activision Blizzard”
Microsoft plans to pay $95 per share to game maker Activision Blizzard if the tech group buys the company. Overall, that makes a purchase price of 68.7 billion US dollars. Microsoft announced this in a press release on January 18, 2022. This price is significantly higher than the current market value of Activision Blizzard: Most recently, the company’s share price on the NASDAQ was $79.06 (as of the closing price on February 1, 2022).
Microsoft becomes the third largest game provider
The statement continues: “Upon completion of the transaction, Microsoft will be the third-largest gaming company in the world, right behind Tencent and Sony. The proposed acquisition also includes iconic franchises from Activision Blizzard and King Studios, such as ??Warcraft?? , ??Diablo??, ??Overwatch??, ??Call of Duty??, and ??Candy Crush?? [
].” The deal has already been approved by all sides, but it is not expected to be completed until 2023.
Until then, according to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an Xbox blog post, the two companies will operate independently. Later, the plan is to integrate as many old and new games as possible into Microsoft’s Game Pass.
There have been games exclusively for the Xbox in the past
The US business magazine Bloomberg says it has information from a person who is familiar with Microsoft’s way of thinking: This person knows that Microsoft plans to continue offering some Activision games for PlayStation, but also wants to keep some content exclusively for the Xbox. In 2020 Microsoft had already bought Zenimax and thus the game manufacturer Bethesda and, for example, designed the upcoming Bethesda game Redfall exclusively for Xbox and PC users, according to the information platform kotaku.
Is Microsoft Sony picking up gamers?
In the competition between PlayStation and Xbox, this means that users of the Sony console could possibly be denied access to “Call of Duty”, among other things. This would give Microsoft a major competitive advantage in view of the most popular games in 2021 – the NPD Group published the figures for the most popular games of the past year in mid-January:
US NPD SW – 2021 Top 20 Sellers pic.twitter.com/pSrJbx8BG7
– Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 18, 2022
Satya Nadella: The new gaming era should be inclusive for everyone
In the Microsoft press release, CEO Satya Nadella is quoted as saying about the purchase: “Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting entertainment category today across all platforms and will play a key role in the development of the Metaverse”. “We’re investing heavily in world-class content, the community and the cloud to usher in a new gaming era that puts players and developers first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible for all,” the Microsoft CEO said is.”
In its press release, Microsoft does not directly mention the Activision abuse scandal from last fall, which, according to Bloomberg, had affected the game producer’s business. Bobby Kotick will remain CEO but will report to Phil Spencer. He writes in his Xbox blog entry: “We believe […]that creative success and autonomy go hand in hand with treating each person with dignity and respect. We oblige all teams and all managers to keep this promise. We look forward to extending our culture of proactive inclusion to the amazing teams at Activision Blizzard.”
Olga Rogler / Editor finanzen.net
Leverage must be between 2 and 20
No data
More news about Microsoft Corp.
Image sources: REDPIXEL.PL / Shutterstock.de, James Marvin Phelps / Shutterstock.com