Microsoft has closed its nearly $69 billion acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard, according to a regulatory filing on Friday, following a lengthy regulatory review process after the deal was announced early last year.
The deal concludes over a year of negotiations between Microsoft and regulators in the U.S. and U.K.
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Surprising Fact
Microsoft is the third-largest gaming company in the world by revenue after acquiring Activision Blizzard, trailing Tencent and Sony.
Key Background
A nearly $69 billion deal—the largest-ever for the video games industry—follows scrutiny by regulators in both the U.S. and the U.K. that issued concerns over Microsoft adding to its cloud gaming services. Sony also warned the merger could prevent PlayStation gamers from playing popular Activision Blizzard games, including the Call of Duty franchise, though Microsoft later offered a 10-year deal to allow future Call of Duty releases on the PlayStation. A California judge ruled in favor of Microsoft’s acquisition in July shortly after Microsoft reached an agreement with regulators in the U.K..
The deal was also approved by the European Commission, after Microsoft agreed to let Activision Blizzard games be played on other cloud services. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick suggested the merger would “enable competition rather than allow entrenched market leaders to continue to dominate our rapidly growing industry.”
Tangent
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the latest for the company, following deals to acquire ZeniMax Media—which owns the video game firm Bethesda Softworks—for $7.5 billion in 2020 and a $26.2 billion deal to acquire LinkedIn in 2016. Other deals involving video game developers include a deal to acquire Bungie Software—developer of the Halo franchise—in 2000 and a 2002 deal to acquire Rare, which created the Banjo-Kazooie franchise, among others.
This article was first published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
