The details of the general meeting are not yet available, but the few recalcitrants are undoubtedly hiding behind the SOC Investment Group, activist shareholders with a small stake who had already come out openly against the possible golden parachute that will be offered to Bobby Kotick, disputed CEO of Activision Blizzard whose departure is strongly anticipated once the offer is finalized. Obviously, their call to vote against Microsoft’s offer was not heard by the other members of the assembly.
The shareholder vote was not the last obstacle before the adoption of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, but it is a step that comes to validate a little more the titanic operation of Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer. With an offer of $95 per share and all-cash payment, Microsoft’s proposal is still well above Activison Blizzard’s current share price of around $76. As a reminder, the sum of 68.7 billion dollars represented a premium of 45% at the time of the announcement of the takeover. By comparison, Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter represents a 38% premium to Wall Street’s valuation.
“The overwhelming vote of support from our shareholders today confirms our shared belief that, combined with Microsoft, we will be even better positioned to create great value for our players, even greater opportunities for our employees, and to continue to focus on our goal to become an inspiring example of a welcoming, respectful and inclusive workplace“said Bobby Kotick.
The FTC, the last serious obstacle
For this, it will still be necessary to obtain the green light from the Federal Trade Commission, a government agency in charge of controlling anti-competitive business practices and other monopolistic situations. As Bloomberg explains, part of Wall Street fears that the FTC, whose powers have recently been reinforced by the Biden government, will put a spoke in the wheel of this massive operation which has until June 2023 (closing of Microsoft’s next fiscal year) to find a favorable outcome. Under Lina Khan, the regulator already distinguished itself earlier this year by torpedoing NVIDIA’s massive acquisition of ARM, which put $40 billion on the table for the semiconductor giant.