Ahead of a report this morning by the Wall Street Journal, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer took to the Xbox News Wire to make the announcement official. Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard in Historic Deal
The Redmond-based company hopes the $68.7 billion dollar deal will close in the fiscal year of 2023. This gives both companies about a year and a half to work things out and to get the deal approved by both European and US governments. Microsoft will be paying $95 a share, which is not too bad given the Activision stock price is soaring today. Although this is approximately 45% more than it was trading at yesterday.
The acquisition gives Xbox eight new studios bringing their total number to 31. More importantly, Xbox now has Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, Starcraft, Crash Bandicoot, and 40 years of Activision games. The eight studios exclude Vicarious Visions, which had been merged into Blizzard after the launch of 2021’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.
This news follows years of allegations of sexual misconduct at Activision and a continuous slide of their stock prices as workers staged walkouts in protest of the poor treatment of female staff. This year, Microsoft themselves launched an investigation into its own sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies.
The deal is one of the largest if not the largest in tech history. It is certainly the largest in video game history, following Microsoft’s $7.5 billion deal of acquisition of Zenimax (Bethesda). As well as last week’s purchase of Zynga by Take-Two Interactive for $12.7 billion.
