Microsoft To Buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 Billion

[rhorle]

I agree, it's clear that Activision had no plans on how to get out of this, and wanted to take the money and run.

According to your own statements they didn't take the money and run because they are not at risk of collapse.

[Machismo]

According to your own statements they didn't take the money and run because they are not at risk of collapse.

I agree, it was the best time for them to sell, because their value was only going down from there.

[Kayze]

Bought for 17.5x the amount Disney paid Lucas to buy Star Wars, holy crap

I wonder what Microsoft's aim is at here. Blizzard's productivity has dropped off the face of the earth over the last decade. Hearthstone is Blizzard's only game that is still making them money. All of their other projects are either stuck in development hell (D4, OW2, Diablo Immortal, whatever the incubation unit is working on) or is in actual maintenance mode (D3, Starcraft 2, HotS, OW1). Blizzard as a game studio has completely broken down and I doubt Microsoft will fix that. I'm guessing Microsoft is either after what Activision has, and/or the Blizzard IPs so they can license the IPs to competent studios.

Comparing a multi IP purchase of two companies to Disney buying a single IP? Perhaps you don't quite understand something here, yourself.
Whether this is something good or bad is to be determined but your ignorance of valuations and of the industry sure as hell can't determine it.

[rennex222]

Warcraft and ESO under the same company what could go wrong?

[rhorle]

I agree, it was the best time for them to sell, because their value was only going down from there.

You stated the sale price wasn't impacted by recent events so it wouldn't have gone down because of recent events. You also haven't explained how AB can't quickly recover like every other company out there can. So if you actually do agree with me then you wouldn't still be trying to argue against what I'm saying with your weird tantrum like discussion style.

[Machismo]

You stated the sale price wasn't impacted by recent events so it wouldn't have gone down because of recent events. You also haven't explained how AB can't quickly recover like every other company out there can. So if you actually do agree with me then you wouldn't still be trying to argue against what I'm saying with your weird tantrum like discussion style.

Where did I say that?

I'll wait.

I did lay it out, and explained it multiple times. You seemed intent on editing out the explanation every single time.

[MoanaLisa]

One interesting side effect of this which so far no one has much talked about is that the quarterly reports that help people to measure Blizzard's revenue and engagement performance are likely to change drastically if not go away altogether once the deal closes. You can easily look up the quarterly revenue performance reports from MSFT and find nary a mention of any of their game software studios (at least that I could find after an uncomprehensive 15 minute search). It may be there somewhere deep in the details but a cursory glance/search didn't see anything.

Blizzard will be a tiny part of MSFT's stock price after this is done. Talk of "Blizzard's investors" will not be relevant. Even Blizzard's quarterly performance ($439 million in Q3/2021) measured against the nearly $46 billion that MSFT as a whole managed to take in during a single quarter will basically disappear. Release delays or other events which some here tend to view as cataclysmic events in terms of ATVI's stock price (usually they are not) will sink into the much vaster ocean of what's going on in Redmond. People, years after the fact, are still moaning about Blizzard not reporting their subscription numbers. I have no idea what the reaction will be should revenue and the rest go away altogether.

Here's a link to what everyone may possibly can look forward to:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Inve...elease-webcast

There are also links there to Excel spreadsheets that have more detail. So far after looking through a bunch of tabs, nada about the gaming software sector in any real detail. I don't know if Microsoft Gaming is part of "More Personal Computing" or what. I'd be glad to be informed if anyone really knows. There are a couple of mentions of gaming revenue but nothing whatsoever broken out by title, studio or anything else.

Post links if there's something else out there. I didn't do anything terribly thorough so I may have missed something (or a lot).

[rhorle]

Where did I say that? I'll wait. I did lay it out, and explained it multiple times. You seemed intent on editing out the explanation every single time.

Seriously, I said other companies can require quickly, like Chipotle. Activision wasn't likely to do so, because of a lack of innovation in the pipeline.

Except, that price tag is the same as it was 6 months ago.

Didn't have to wait long, huh? So the price was the same pre-scandal. And somehow AB is failing at producing video games even though they still had $2 billion in revenue last quarter. And they are so terrible at development that another company paid 34 times their quarterly revenue just to get a hold of that "bleak future" of a failing company that is totally no where near collapse. Despite AB having to take the money and run because the company was failing but not collapsing and also not able to recover but also able to recover.

You are stuck in this weird holding pattern simply because you made conflicting statements and can't allow yourself to admit it because of reasons.

[SniperCT]

Given enough money… everything/ everyone is for sale.



I was thinking SONY would want to lock up SquareEnix

Less about the MMO thing honestly. WoW is small fish in this. Plus Square has resisted efforts to be bought before. They're generally happy where they are. Though Sony stands a better chance than MS of ever buying them.

Mostly it's about the IPs. Call of Duty, Diablo, etc. MS has been buying up publishers with a multitude of big IPs for awhile now.

EA owns a metric ton of franchises, and are probably the biggest fish left. Other than them, maybe Epic and Ubisoft?

Either way, we probably don't want MS buying them too, and if they are for sale Sony would be the best bet. Still a really bad consolidation of IPs and companies, but better two big fish than one.

[rhorle]

Blizzard will be a tiny part of MSFT's stock price after this is done.

Is that true though? Because in the past the studios Microsoft acquired were not publicly traded. Activision Blizzard is a publicly traded company and the announcement simply said it would report to Microsoft Gaming and not that it would be part of Microsoft. Didn't we still have quarterly reports for Blizzard during Vivendi's reign as parent company of AB? I honestly don't remember because they didn't seem to get as much attention as they do now.

[MoanaLisa]

Is that true though? Because in the past the studios Microsoft acquired were not publicly traded. Activision Blizzard is a publicly traded company and the announcement simply said it would report to Microsoft Gaming and not that it would be part of Microsoft. Didn't we still have quarterly reports for Blizzard during Vivendi's reign? I honestly don't remember because they didn't seem to get as much attention as they do now.

It depends on the terms of the deal I guess. It wouldn't surprise me to see ATVI as a stock go away altogether at some point.

[Machismo]

Didn't have to wait long, huh? So the price was the same pre-scandal. And somehow AB is failing at producing video games even though they still had $2 billion in revenue last quarter. And they are so terrible at development that another company paid 34 times their quarterly revenue just to get a hold of that "bleak future" of a failing company that is totally no where near collapse. Despite AB having to take the money and run because the company was failing but not collapsing and also not able to recover but also able to recover.

You are stuck in this weird holding pattern simply because you made conflicting statements and can't allow yourself to admit it because of reasons.

You literally just linked where I explained what you said I didn't explain.

Thanks!!!

You really don't know how companies are bought out, and you really don't know how to actually read what people say. Do us all a favor, and go look at the long-term stock prices.

- - - Updated - - -

Is that true though? Because in the past the studios Microsoft acquired were not publicly traded. Activision Blizzard is a publicly traded company and the announcement simply said it would report to Microsoft Gaming and not that it would be part of Microsoft. Didn't we still have quarterly reports for Blizzard during Vivendi's reign as parent company of AB? I honestly don't remember because they didn't seem to get as much attention as they do now.

They will almost certainly be absorbed into the parent company.

[BetrayedOf52]

As someone who has game pass ultimate that covers my xbox account, my gfs xbox account and my PC game pass for less than any other sub I have. Im insanely happy there's even more value coming to the game pass. This is literally the best thing to gaming iv ever seen. 36 studios now will be day one game pass lol.

[rhorle]

They will almost certainly be absorbed into the parent company.

Activision was not when it was bought by Vivendi. It stayed its own publicly traded company which is how AB bought its independence from Vivendi in the first place.

[Machismo]

Activision was not when it was bought by Vivendi. It stayed its own publicly traded company which is how AB bought its independence from Vivendi in the first place.

Microsoft loves to absorb companies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s_by_Microsoft

They may stay separate, but I doubt it. In the end, it will not be as autonomous as even Blizzard was under Activision.

[rhorle]

They may stay separate, but I doubt it. In the end, it will not be as autonomous as even Blizzard was under Activision.

Blizzard had pretty much the same autonomy under when Vivendi owned Activision Blizzard that it does now. Just because Microsoft loves to absorb companies doesn't mean anything. It all depends on if they are taking it private or keeping it a publicly traded entity. The all cash $95 a share for $68 billion does seem to lean more towards private rather then just majority/owner stake.

[Machismo]

Blizzard had pretty much the same autonomy under when Vivendi owned Activision Blizzard that it does now. Just because Microsoft loves to absorb companies doesn't mean anything. It all depends on if they are taking it private or keeping it a publicly traded entity.

That really has no impact on the matter. It's all about how Microsoft chooses to control them. We already know that they will fall under the CEO of gaming for Microsoft.

[Ladey Gags]

As someone who has game pass ultimate that covers my xbox account, my gfs xbox account and my PC game pass for less than any other sub I have. Im insanely happy there's even more value coming to the game pass. This is literally the best thing to gaming iv ever seen. 36 studios now will be day one game pass lol.

YIPPEEE YIPPEEE HIPPHIPPHOORRAAAY

“This major corporate consolidation is awesome because I’m a good little consumer who benefits from it in the short term”

Oh my god WAKE THE FUCK UP

[rhorle]

That really has no impact on the matter. It's all about how Microsoft chooses to control them. We already know that they will fall under the CEO of gaming for Microsoft.

But that doesn't have an impact. The CEO of a company with a parent company would fall under someone at that parent company. All it comes down to is if Microsoft wants to keep Activision Blizzard a publicly traded company or to be a private one with no public share holders. If it is a publicly traded separate entity then we will still have reports.

[Machismo]

But that doesn't have an impact. The CEO of a company with a parent company would fall under someone at that parent company. All it comes down to is if Microsoft wants to keep Activision Blizzard a publicly traded company or to be a private one with no public share holders. If it is a publicly traded separate entity then we will still have reports.

It does. Activision has shown that it has a leadership problem, and so does Blizzard.

It's why they have been in the news.

Microsoft has very little incentive to let them continue operating so independently, since the main point of this was to buy the IP. Reports are largely meaningless, and don't speak to autonomy.