Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard in $68.7 Billion Deal

Major gaming news has dropped today. Microsoft has announced they will be buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. This will greatly accelerate Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse. Not only that, but it will allow for the addition of Blizzard games on Game Pass which should make it even more enticing for gamers. Acquiring beloved franchises such as Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty, and Candy Crush will go a long way towards building an even more loyal fanbase. 

Activision CEO Bobby Kottick will be CEO until the deal is complete, and then after that he will report to Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming. They say they are doing this to allow Kottick to maintain his focus on driving efforts to further strengthen the company’s culture, but after all the controversy over how Kottick has run things I think this is a mistake. This would have been a great time to bring in someone new to help fix all the problems with culture that have gone on under Kottick. People love Activision Blizzard games, but hearing about the terrible work environment has really turned people off the company, so getting someone new to head things up would have been a smart move. Hopefully he will be up to the task of fixing all the problems within the company.

When the transaction is finished, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. Overall I think this is a move to be excited about, especially if Microsoft can prove capable of fixing the internal problems at Activision Blizzard.