News Mash-Up - Week # 3

• • Pending approval from The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard (including King), with all its game assets, for $68.7 billion, paid for in cash. This came to $95 per share. Before the announcement, Activision Blizzard’s market capitalization was valued at $51 billion with a share price of $64. The acquisition is expected to be completed in Microsoft’s new financial year, sometime after June 2022. The acquisition of Activision will make Xbox the third biggest gaming company in the world, behind Tencent and Sony.

  • News of the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard wiped $20 billion off Sony as shares for the company fell by -13%. By contrast share price for Activision jumped +26%, above $80. This price is still below the $90 price point the company had back in June 2021 before allegations of workplace malpractice surfaced. Share prices of Ubisoft and EAs also increased by double percentage points as speculation that future mergers and acquisitions among the AAA publishers will take place.

  • Microsoft released a statement that GamePass has reached a worldwide subscription of 25 million accounts. On a conservative estimate that generates $250 million per month. In the last year alone GamePass has added 7 million new subscribers and has added content worth $6,300. In the four and half years since the launch of the service, Microsoft has added approximately half a million new subscribers every month.

  • Raven Software Quality Assurance workers, who were on strike since early December, have unionized. The Game Workers Alliance will be the first US games union. The strikers will return to work.

Week commencing Monday 24 Jan. 2022