This would be the largest takeover in Microsoft history. As a company spokesman said, the purchase is intended to accelerate the growth of Microsoft’s games business in the areas of mobile, PC, console and cloud and provide building blocks for the so-called “Metaverse”, a collectively usable virtual space. Activision Blizzard successfully developed games like “Call of Duty”, “Candy Crush” or “World of Warcraft”. Recently, there have been allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination against the company.
With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft says it will become the third-largest video game player in terms of revenue, after China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony. According to the information, the technology group wants to pay 95 dollars per share from Activision Blizzard. The purchase price is thus 68.7 billion dollars. The deal is expected to close in 2023. Microsoft already offers the Xbox game console and owns several development studios.
Investors reacted positively to the acquisition announcement. Activision Blizzard’s stock price rose more than 37 percent in pre-opening electronic trading.
This message was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk on January 21, 2022.