Yesterday, Microsoft announced the purchase of Activision Blizzard for a record $68.7 billion for the gaming industry. As a result, Sony‘s shares collapsed, and information appeared in the media about the possible departure of Bobby Kotick. We tell you what else happened after the news about the deal.
Sony shares fall
Sony’s stock price began to decline shortly after the announcement of the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. If yesterday afternoon it was still possible to buy one share of the company for ¥14,230 ($124.25), then by the time the exchange opened this morning the price tag had fallen to ¥13,100 ($113.5). The shares continued to fall in price after that. At the time of writing the news, they are already being sold for ¥12,410 ($108.36) apiece — 12.79% cheaper than yesterday.
One of the reasons for this may be the transfer of Activision Blizzard games to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, which is why Sony loses part of its revenue. Nevertheless, according to Bloomberg, at least some of the projects will continue to be released for PlayStation consoles.
Bobby Kotick may leave the post of head of Activision Blizzard upon completion of the deal
This is reported by The Wall Street Journal. According to the sources of the publication, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have agreed that the Cat will leave the post immediately after the end of the takeover, i.e., in fiscal 2023.
The companies have not officially confirmed this. However, they previously reported that from 2023, the entire Activision Blizzard business will be controlled by Phil Spencer, head of gaming at Microsoft.
Note that if the Cat is fired from the company (and not he himself leaves), then he will claim a generous “golden parachute” — $292.97 million.
In any case, a cat can make good money on a deal with Microsoft. As calculated in VGC, now the head of Activision Blizzard owns 3.9 million shares of the company (about 0.5% of all shares of the publisher). Their sale at the rate proposed by Microsoft is able to bring the Cat $ 371 million. The Reuters portal also indicated that, taking into account bonuses from Microsoft, this amount could grow to $390 million.
By the way, it is possible that there are more Activision Blizzard shares in the Cat’s portfolio, but they belong to him through intermediaries. Recall that in the year of taking office, the Cat immediately acquired 25% of the company’s shares.
“Alliance of Workers” ABK will continue to defend the rights of employees in Activision Blizzard
The “Alliance of Workers” ABK (Activision Blizzard King) is a society of Activision Blizzard employees that opposes discrimination and harassment in the company. Yesterday, the group said it was “surprised” by the deal, but would not cancel its plans. She will continue to fight for “improving working conditions and respecting the rights of employees, regardless of who manages the publisher’s finances.”
The news of Activision's acquisition by Microsoft is surprising, but does not change the goals of the ABK Worker's Alliance. (1/6)
— ABetterABK ???? ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) January 18, 2022
The Workers’ Alliance recalled that back in November it called for the resignation of the Seal. The group has also been participating in a strike against the layoffs of testers at Raven Software for the fifth week, but has not yet received a response from Activision Blizzard management.
Bobby Kotick was going to buy gaming media to change public opinion about the company
This information is shared by The Wall Street Journal with reference to people familiar with the head of Activision Blizzard. Judging by it, the Cat was eyeing such publications as PC Gamer and Kotaku.
Activision Blizzard spokeswoman Helaine Klasky denied this statement. PC Gamer and G/O Media (Kotaku’s parent company) did not comment on the situation.
The number of Game Pass subscribers has exceeded 25 million people
During the announcement of the purchase of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft also talked about the new milestone of the Game Pass subscription — it has over 25 million users. For comparison, at the beginning of last year, the Game Pass audience was 18 million people.
Activision Blizzard is the most expensive purchase in the history of Microsoft
The Wall Street Journal journalists noticed that Microsoft had never spent so much money on a takeover of a company before. Before, her most expensive purchase was the takeover of LinkedIn in 2016. Then Microsoft paid $26.2 billion — 2.6 times less than for Activision Blizzard.
It should be noted that Microsoft has spent about $10 billion on purchases of specific game studios since CEO Satya Nadella took office in 2014. This amount includes money for the purchase of ZeniMax Media, which owns Bethesda and id Software ($8.1 billion).
If the takeover of Activision Blizzard is successful, Microsoft will have 30 internal game development studios under its control.
