The top software company Microsoft has completed the acquisition process almost 20 months after the agreement to buy Activision Blizzard, the maker of the popular game ‘Call of Duty’, was suspended due to regulatory hurdles. As a result, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for 6,900 million US dollars. That said, Activision’s purchase of Blizzard for this price marks the largest acquisition deal in Microsoft’s 48-year history. It’s the most lucrative acquisition deal even in the gaming industry.
In January last year, US technology giant Microsoft plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, a multinational video game maker from the same country. However, the competition and markets authority (CMA) of the United Kingdom stood in the way. The agreement required regulatory approvals from the United Kingdom, United States and the European Union. CMA is one of the regulatory bodies in these three countries. As a result, this decision of the British organization became important. The CMA said at the time that the deal would limit the choice of games for gamers with less innovation in the fast-growing cloud gaming business. However, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard said they would appeal against the decision. Finally, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard completed this acquisition process by crossing the barriers of the regulatory body.
As a result of this acquisition, Microsoft Corporation became the owner of popular and successful games like ‘Call of Duty’, ‘World of Warcraft’, ‘Candy Crush’. Apart from this, the Xbox gaming console is also owned by Microsoft. As a result, the company is going to strengthen its position in the future gaming market.
Phil Spencer, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft Gaming said, ‘We are starting to work with Activision. Details will be given later. Activision Blizzard’s current CEO Bobby Kotick will continue his duties until 2023.
Activision Blizzard is an information technology company based in the coastal city of Santa Monica, California, USA. It primarily develops video games. Its journey started in July 2008. Microsoft previously bought another popular game company Bethesda.
It should be noted that Microsoft acquired several other companies at different times. These companies include LinkedIn (2016 acquisition), Nuance (2021), Skype (2011), Zenimax Media (2020), GitHub (2018), Aquantiv (2007), Informatica (2015) and Mojang (2014).