It is the most expensive video game acquisition of all time: Microsoft will buy publisher Activision Blizzard for a staggering $68.7 billion in an all cash deal, the Redmont-based firm announced on Tuesday.
The cost, which comes at $95 per share is a premium of 45 per cent over Activision’s closing share price on Friday.
The acquisition will give Microsoft—and its videogame subscription service Xbox Game Pass—access to Activision’s library of titles including the popular Call of Duty and Overwatch franchises, each of which boasts millions of players. The deal makes Microsoft the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue.
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," Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a statement.
The deal dwarfs that of Farmville creator Zynga by Take Two Interactive earlier this year, which was worth $11 billion.
Activision was founded just five years after Microsoft, in 1979. In its four decades making videogames, it published videogames ranging from the Crash Bandicoot platformers to the Doom 3 and Quake FPSes. In 2008, the company merged with Vivendi Games to form Activision Blizzard, giving it the popular Massively Multiplayer Online role Playing Game World of Warcraft.
