Microsoft to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.9 billions

Nikosandros

Nikosandros

Golden Procrastinator
I've just read the news on an Italian news outlet hich linked this article on the WSJ. According to the piece,

Microsoft to Buy Activision Blizzard in All-Cash Deal Valued at $68.7 Billion, using its largest acquisition by far to grab a videogame heavyweight that has been roiled by claims of workplace misconduct.

The deal, if completed, would sharply expand Microsoft’s already sizable videogame operation, adding a stable of popular game franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush to Microsoft’s Xbox console business and its own games like Minecraft and Doom. Microsoft said the transaction would make it the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Japan’s Sony Group Corp.
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Blackrat

Blackrat

He Who Lurks Beyond The Veil
aco175 said:
They're spending that much money to become the 3rd place team. How absurd in the value of the first two?
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Before the deal, the quarter year revenues of gaming portions of the companies were, roughly
1. Tencent $8B
2. Sony $4B
3. Apple $3.5B
4. MS $3B

So this deal knocks MS between 3.5 & 4 Billion dollars in quartal revenue of gaming content. Which is less than half of Tencent’s.

And in total revenue, that is a fraction of what Tencent pulls from other areas…
 
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Jer

Jer

Legend
Supporter
Nikosandros said:
I might be truly ancient, because my first instinctive reaction about this post was: that's not correct, Zork is made by Infocom... :p
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I remember Infocom getting acquired by Activision and have made a point of following who owns all of those Infocom assets as they get bought. I still will break out some of them periodically to play - I never have managed to beat Douglas Adam's Bureaucracy game (and I'm too stubborn to use a walkthrough).
 

Snarf Zagyg

Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
"... to grab a videogame heavyweight that has been roiled by claims of workplace misconduct."

That's the understatement of the year. I mean, other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

For those of you who aren't keeping up with videogame industry news, Activision (which also owns a number of other prominent studios, such as Blizzard) has been the epicenter of the biggest controversy regarding abusive practices in the industry- it's not just bad, it's really bad. It's so bad that even places like Ubisoft look at Activision and say, "Wow, you have a toxic work environment." It's so bad that Lego has been re-evaluating their partnership with Activision regarding making toys (such as an Overwatch 2 set).

There have been government investigations, as well as a number of prominent resignations from Activision as well due to the culture and complaints of harassment, sexism, discrimination, and general "frat boy" behavior (including allegations of sexual assault) that has been known and tolerated at the highest levels of the company. Numerous upcoming products have been delayed.

So either Microsoft is getting a great deal, or a cesspool. Guess that's what the due diligence is for.


(EDIT- I should add that these are things that have been generally reported- I have no special knowledge or insight regarding these issues.)
 


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