It’s been less than 24 hours since Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard for an eye-watering $68.7 billion. The world is still reeling from what will undoubtedly live on as one of the biggest deals ever in the games business, if not the biggest.
That is already a large sum of money, but it’s not until you look at Microsoft’s own history with acquisitions, and the entertainment industry at large, that it really puts things in perspective. In 2019, Disney acquired Fox in a historic deal worth $71.3 billion, only $2.6 billion more than what Microsoft paid for Activision Blizzard.
This is by far Microsoft’s largest ever acquisition. Before Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s highest was Linkedin, which was worth $26.2 billion in 2016. In more relevant terms, Microsoft paid about ten times what it did to acquire Bethesda & Zenimax in 2020 to buy Activision Blizzard.
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