“This purchase will accelerate the growth of Microsoft’s mobile, PC, console and cloud games business and provide building blocks for the Metaverse,” Microsoft said on Tuesday.
If completed, it would be the largest takeover in video game history and the largest in Microsoft corporate history. Video games are “the largest and fastest growing form of entertainment,” Microsoft said. CEO Satya Nadella spoke of the “most dynamic and exciting category of entertainment across all platforms”.
Development of metaverse platforms
The video game industry will also “play a key role in the development of Metaverse platforms,” Nadella said. The term metaverse describes a collectively usable virtual space.
With the takeover of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft says it will become the third-largest provider in the video game sector in terms of sales after Tencent from China and Sony from Japan. 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 delighted
In addition to «Call of Duty» and «World of Warcraft», Activision Blizzard is also known for games such as «Candy Crush» and «Diablo». Last summer, however, the game developer was rocked by allegations of discrimination and harassment against female employees. In July, the state of California sued the company. Workers called for the resignation of boss Bobby Kotick in the fall. Microsoft said on Tuesday that Kotick would remain head of Activision Blizzard.
Investors reacted enthusiastically to the takeover announcement. Activision Blizzard’s stock price rose more than 37 percent in pre-opening electronic trading.
Just last week, the US video game giant Take-Two (“Grand Theft Auto”) announced the purchase of the developer Zynga, known for the game “Farmville”. The purchase price is $12.7 billion.