The technology group has announced its largest acquisition to date.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf, New York The hardware and software group Microsoft is planning an economically gigantic takeover in the gaming industry. According to a statement by the Windows group on Monday, the company is making a nearly $70 billion bid for Activision Blizzard, one of the world’s largest game makers by revenue. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on it.
Microsoft is buying Activision at $95 per share, totaling $68.7 billion. It is by far the largest acquisition by the group to date. According to the company, this makes it the world’s number three in the area of game development and entertainment. Only the Japanese Playstation manufacturer Sony and the Chinese tech group Tencent, which holds several stakes in successful game studios and publishers, are larger.
The news caused a stir on the New York Stock Exchange. Activision shares, which had fallen significantly in recent months, gained 38 percent in premarket trading. Microsoft papers fell by around one percent.
Microsoft is massively strengthening its gaming division with the purchase. With the Xbox series, the group has one of the most successful video game consoles in its portfolio and offers a cross-platform subscription service with its “Game Pass”. The group already includes publishers such as Bethesda, which maintains two of the best-known and most successful game franchises with the “Fallout” and “Elder Scrolls” series.
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Activision Blizzard is largely known for the “Warcraft” games and continues to develop the successful “Call of Duty” series, among other things. The company had sales of around $2 billion in the third quarter of 2021, with cash flow of half a billion dollars.
Activision Blizzard, created in its current form through various mergers with Vivendi spin-offs, has recently made a name for itself with a never-ending series of scandals. At its core, it is about massive misconduct at management levels and allegations of abuse of power and sexual harassment. CEO Bobby Kotick, with the company since 1991, came under a lot of pressure. In its announcement, Microsoft now explicitly stated that it wanted to continue working with Kotick in this function.
More: Activision Blizzard, EA, Zynga – video game boom continues despite lockdown end.