Yesterday, in an announcement that took every corner of the gaming industry by complete surprise, Microsoft announced its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard. Phil Spencer, who you probably know by now as CEO at Microsoft Gaming, outlined that a deal – set to complete in 2023, at the cost of $68.7 billion – is being worked through right now.
But a quick press release from Xbox and another from Activision Blizzard only does so much to clear things up. This is monumental. Gargantuan. Perhaps one of the biggest pieces of gaming news I’ve ever seen (and I’ve been reporting for over 10 years, at this point). It makes Microsoft’s Bethesda takeover in 2020 seem practically insignificant (which is only natural: this merger is worth approximately 10 times Microsoft’s last big purchase).
We’ve already put a lot of thought into the situation, and we’ve drafted in a gaming business specialist to answer all of your big questions about the more complicated aspects of the merger. We’ve covered stories comparing this acquisition to other notable acqusitions in the media industry (noting that Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for about what Disney paid to acquire Fox) and we’ve drilled down deep into some of the comments from the people in charge.
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