Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard Inc., a video game development company, for $68.7 billion. Activision Blizzard produces games such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and Hearthstone. Microsoft will bring back Activision Blizzard’s roughly 10,000 employees as part of the deal, which was announced on January 18.
Microsoft executives believe the acquisition accelerates the growth of the company’s games business across mobile, PC, console and cloud, and say it will “provide building blocks for the metaverse.” As part of the transaction, Microsoft will also obtain strong esports brands through Major League Gaming.
The $68.7 billion transaction makes Activision Blizzard’s acquisition the largest in Microsoft’s history. Until today, LinkedIn – which Microsoft bought in 2016 for $26.2 billion – was its biggest acquisition, followed by Nuance Communications for $19.7 billion last year.
Source: “ZDNet.com”