In Brief:
- Microsoft announced the acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
- The deal will help Microsoft to advance its metaverse and gaming projects.
- The deal will make Microsoft the third-largest gaming company in terms of revenue.
Microsoft announced the acquisition of a leading gaming company, Activision Blizzard Inc in $69 billion to advance gaming and Metaverse projects.
Activision Blizzard is the developer and origin of many famous games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and many others. After the acquisition, Activision Blizzard’s all games will be added to Microsoft Xbox’s Game Pass service.
As per the source, Microsoft will pay $95 per share of Activision Blizzard with a total valuation of $68.7 billion. The completion of the deal is expected in 2023. After that, Microsoft will become the third-largest gaming company in the world after Riot Games owner Tencent and Playstation developer Sony.
Microsoft believes that the acquisition will help the company to grow its services across mobile, PC, Console, and Cloud gaming. “provide building blocks for the Metaverse.” Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella said:
“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms.”
Moreover, Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick will continue to lead the company up to the deal completion. After that, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer will take charge of the gaming operation.
“The fantastic franchises across Activision Blizzard will also accelerate our plans for Cloud Gaming, allowing more people in more places around the world to participate in the Xbox community using phones, tablets, laptops, and other devices you already own,” Spencer wrote.
Currently, Tech giants are inclining towards the Metaverse gaming concept. While Microsoft is looking forward to building its own metaverse platform and to achieve this goal the company has revealed a plan to upgrade Teams and Xbox gaming Console services with its new product launch Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces.
