Microsoft reportedly agreed to meet a dowry of USD 69 billion to acquire the game company Activision Blizzard. This will be the biggest acquisition in history for the Redmond, US-based tech giant.
The deal was announced by Microsoft on Tuesday (18/1/2022) local time. When the acquisition is complete, it will make Microsoft the third largest gaming company in the world after Tencent and Sony, as well as strengthen the metaverse foundation that was previously announced.
"Games are the most dynamic and exciting entertainment category across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of the platform metaverse," said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsft.
Microsoft will pay $95 per share in cash to add Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft, and many other Activision titles. Blizzard to Xbox Game Pass.
"Once the acquisition is complete, we will be offering as many Activision Blizzard games as possible on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard's incredible catalog," said Microsoft Games CEO Phil Spencer.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick himself will remain in office only until the deal closes, a person familiar with the deal said. Once the transaction is complete, Activision Blizzard's business will report to Phil Spancer.
"As a company, Microsoft is committed to our journey for inclusion in every aspect of the game, both among employees and players," said Spencer. "We highly value individual studio culture. We also believe that creative success and autonomy go hand in hand with treating everyone with dignity and respect. We embrace all teams, and all leaders, for this commitment. We look forward to extending our culture of proactive inclusion to teams -great team at Activision Blizzard."
Prior to Activision's annexation, Microsoft had made several recent acquisitions to increase its roster of game studios. In 2020, they agreed to acquire ZeniMax Media Inc., home to publishers The Elder Scrolls and Doom Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion.
At the time, it was Microsoft's biggest video game purchase ever. The company created by Bill Gates previously spent $2.5 billion in 2014 to buy Mojang, the makers of Minecraft, the popular cyber-building game seen as a pathway to the company's future metaverse ambitions.
Microsoft hopes to close the deal in fiscal 2023. But the road will not be smooth, as US regulators have signaled they will be much more aggressive in evaluating major acquisitions, especially in the tech industry. Not to mention a number of cases involving Activision before, one of which was sexual harassment.