CORP/BIZ Microsoft to buy Activision in $68.7 billion all-cash deal

[lonestar09]

Sorry for the gobbledygook at the beginning if the article.

Microsoft to buy Activision in $68.7 billion all-cash deal

Microsoft to buy Activision in $68.7 billion all-cash deal
Steve Kovach, CNBC
2 hrs ago
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Microsoft announced Tuesday it will buy video game giant Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion all-cash deal.
Shares of Activision soared about 37 percent in pre-market trading before being halted after the Wall Street Journal first reported the deal.
Microsoft shares fell more than 2 percent following the announcement

Activision, which is known for popular games such as Call of Duty and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, has been mired in controversy for the last several months following reports of sexual misconduct and harassment among the company’s executives. On Monday, Activision said it fired dozens of executives after an investigation.

Under the deal, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who has faced calls to resign over the cultural problems within his company, will remain CEO and report to Microsoft’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer. Microsoft has become more aggressive with gaming over the past several years. It bought Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014. And last year, Microsoft completed a $7.5 billion acquisition of game maker Bethesda.

The deal also plays into a long-term vision for Microsoft as it competes with Meta (formerly Facebook) to build technologies to create a virtual world called the metaverse. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was the first Big Tech chief executive to publicly acknowledge the value of the metaverse, months before Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Today, virtual worlds are dominated by gaming, but the hope is they expand to cater to other demographics and replace much of the online social networking.


In announcing the deal, the companies highlighted Activision’s strength in mobile gaming, such as the popular — and lucrative — Candy Crush. They also highlighted the opportunity to cross-promote popular gaming franchises from both companies, like Microsoft’s Halo and Activision’s World of Warcraft.

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

The business talking heads are saying the regulatory heads may not allow the deal as it would constitute a gaming monopoly if the deal is allowed to go through. Microsoft is fixing to come under the auspices of the Sherman Anti-trust act again.

But the buy out really is getting pushed as Blizzard/Activision is under legal troubles and they need access to the microsoft lawyers. MS sees the intrinsic values of the WOW and other subscriptions that they have going on and is trying to get another cash cow as their OS and Server product lines are getting replaced with Linux and other free product suites...

 

[Dystonic]

The business talking heads are saying the regulatory heads may not allow the deal as it would constitute a gaming monopoly if the deal is allowed to go through. Microsoft is fixing to come under the auspices of the Sherman Anti-trust act again.

But the buy out really is getting pushed as Blizzard/Activision is under legal troubles and they need access to the microsoft lawyers. MS sees the intrinsic values of the WOW and other subscriptions that they have going on and is trying to get another cash cow as their OS and Server product lines are getting replaced with Linux and other free product suites...

MS may do what they did in the late 90’s. I remember their was a lot of noise about them having a desktop OS monopoly. MS tried to say Apple kept them from being a monopoly but that argument was worn thin. So MS bought half a billion in shares to breathe life into Apple and have a “viable competitor”.

 

[Echo 5]

As long as it gets rid of that disgusting pig, Bobby Kotick.

 

[Blacknarwhal]

The business talking heads are saying the regulatory heads may not allow the deal as it would constitute a gaming monopoly if the deal is allowed to go through. Microsoft is fixing to come under the auspices of the Sherman Anti-trust act again.

But the buy out really is getting pushed as Blizzard/Activision is under legal troubles and they need access to the microsoft lawyers. MS sees the intrinsic values of the WOW and other subscriptions that they have going on and is trying to get another cash cow as their OS and Server product lines are getting replaced with Linux and other free product suites...

It's a possibility. Biden's Just-us Department has a real bug up its ass about monopolies. It really wouldn't be, though, as there are so many other places to get games.

It might START something nasty in the gaming market, as a lot of titles would end up exclusive to certain consoles. Aside from that, any reasonable person can see this is not a monopoly. How reasonable the Just-us Department gets, though, depends on who's been bribed that week.

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

It's a possibility. Biden's Just-us Department has a real bug up its ass about monopolies. It really wouldn't be, though, as there are so many other places to get games.

It might START something nasty in the gaming market, as a lot of titles would end up exclusive to certain consoles. Aside from that, any reasonable person can see this is not a monopoly. How reasonable the Just-us Department gets, though, depends on who's been bribed that week.

Problem is if they single source specfiic titles the ROMs market will heat up and this time around there will not be a way to stop things...

 

[Blacknarwhal]

Problem is if they single source specfiic titles the ROMs market will heat up and this time around there will not be a way to stop things...

Piracy has always been an issue. But it was never that big of one, not in gaming. There's even some evidence that says piracy is good for gaming since it gets people to buy copies when they have cash to do so.

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

Piracy has always been an issue. But it was never that big of one, not in gaming. There's even some evidence that says piracy is good for gaming since it gets people to buy copies when they have cash to do so.

Also true. But with the ability to emulate every single console ever made basically, and the ability to download every single rom ever made, IP restrictions and lockdowns on DRM are moot...

 

[Blacknarwhal]

Also true. But with the ability to emulate every single console ever made basically, and the ability to download every single rom ever made, IP restrictions and lockdowns on DRM are moot...

And the sheer number of people who engage in such behavior is so comparatively small that it's barely a dent. It's hard for businesses to bring lawyers to bear when the cost of the lawyers is probably greater than the value of the lost sales.

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

And the sheer number of people who engage in such behavior is so comparatively small that it's barely a dent. It's hard for businesses to bring lawyers to bear when the cost of the lawyers is probably greater than the value of the lost sales.

RIAA/MPAA lawsuits had proven this to be the case. The PR backlash was worse than the expense. Not going to happen again other than very targeted suits for massive abusers and visible examples are more of what we would see in todays environment. Think a celebrity twitch streamer that is known internationally. And even that could back fire so will they do something in a very limited and targeted way only touching a handful of individuals? Time will tell.

But, Nintendo going after the ROM hosting sites and Sony making it difficult as well. The console makers see the writing on the wall. Make their past library accessible or lose a generational audience to new sales. The older stuff made when quality was everything and no post release fixes were allowed as it was physical cartridge based hardware, made recalls a business breaking issue, is what is captivating many folks now a days.

And Sony screwed up with the PS5. They could have held off on the release until this past christmas on selling and there would have been no scalping factor. They could have held off to ensure that the backwards compatibility was all set in stone and working for PS1 through present on their emulation software piece in the console OS.

As we see a massive credit retraction and slumps in sales, we are going to see a push back to more quality releases as folks are going to refuse the pay full price for a broken release date game. Make the gamers pay to be the beta testers may come to an end here soon I am hoping.

 

[Blacknarwhal]

RIAA/MPAA lawsuits had proven this to be the case. The PR backlash was worse than the expense. Not going to happen again other than very targeted suits for massive abusers and visible examples are more of what we would see in todays environment. Think a celebrity twitch streamer that is known internationally. And even that could back fire so will they do something in a very limited and targeted way only touching a handful of individuals? Time will tell.

But, Nintendo going after the ROM hosting sites and Sony making it difficult as well. The console makers see the writing on the wall. Make their past library accessible or lose a generational audience to new sales. The older stuff made when quality was everything and no post release fixes were allowed as it was physical cartridge based hardware, made recalls a business breaking issue, is what is captivating many folks now a days.

And Sony screwed up with the PS5. They could have held off on the release until this past christmas on selling and there would have been no scalping factor. They could have held off to ensure that the backwards compatibility was all set in stone and working for PS1 through present on their emulation software piece in the console OS.

As we see a massive credit retraction and slumps in sales, we are going to see a push back to more quality releases as folks are going to refuse the pay full price for a broken release date game. Make the gamers pay to be the beta testers may come to an end here soon I am hoping.

Microsoft made the same mistake. But no one really saw the chip shortage coming. Or figured it would last this long and be this pronounced.

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

Microsoft made the same mistake. But no one really saw the chip shortage coming. Or figured it would last this long and be this pronounced.

JIT is one of those things, once it fails, it will cause a ripple for many months. Part of this as has been stated elsewhere is where China is trying to decouple from our economy and it is created all manner of unintended consequences that could make the united states a superpower again once all the stuff is moved back onshore.

I had predicted that the JIT supply chain woes would last about 36 months due to the supply demand ripples as entities ensure disruptions do not ever happen again and buffer their inventories accordingly. But this will fundamentally change retail and distribution center warehousing layout schemes. Storing 2 years of some products instead of 1 and 6 months instead of 3 months of product in other cases and some businesses period will have a years worth of inventory on hand at all times, when it drops below, they are waiting on a replenishment shipment.

JIT only came to be after government started taxing on hand inventory at the end of the calendar year, and that is moving to the wayside and I predict that there will be a push to do away with those taxes entirely if it ensures no more supply chain hiccups...