Microsoft decided to spend 68.7 billion USD to buy Activision Blizzard - the company behind many famous games like Call of Duty, Diablo, Candy Crush.
Many popular games of Activision Blizzard may be brought to Xbox in the near future. Photo: Microsoft |
The merger was announced on January 18 and is expected to close in fiscal year 2023. At Activision Blizzard's per share valuation of $95, the deal's value is $68.7 billion and is paid in cash. face, according to the announcement from Microsoft.
This new move is said to help the world's largest software corporation have an extra edge in the metaverse competition. In her statement, Satya Nadella, President and CEO of Microsoft, mentioned the metaverse and commented that "games play an important role in the development of these platforms".
Activision Blizzard will be one of the biggest mergers Microsoft has ever made, far exceeding the $26 billion it spent on social network LinkedIn in 2016. After completing ownership of Activision, Microsoft will be a major game company. third in the world by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. This is also the largest deal in the technology sector, surpassing Dell's purchase of EMC for $67 billion five years ago.
Activision Blizzard is currently one of the largest game studios today with more than 10,000 employees worldwide, attracting 400 million monthly users in 190 countries. The company owns many popular game brands such as Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Candy Crush.
Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, said the company plans to bring the maximum number of Activision games to Xbox Game Pass, which has more than 25 million registered subscribers.
And Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, believes that working with Microsoft will help the company maintain success in the increasingly competitive gaming sector. The merger took place amid the company's internal problems related to the working environment. According to the WSJ, Activision is being investigated for a sex scandal. CEO Kotick was also criticized for not taking action to address harassment within the company.
According to TechCrunch, Microsoft's deal also raises concerns about the company's monopoly in the gaming sector. Microsoft has previously announced plans to buy ZeniMax, the company behind many games like Elder Scrolls, Doom and Fallout, but this deal has not yet come to fruition.