One of the best biggest acquisitions in the history of the game industry took place in January 2022, when Xbox decided to purchase Activision Blizzard for an astonishing $68.7 billion. This meant that Xbox would automatically acquire sky-scoring games like Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch, just to name a few.
The deal was meant to be completed in the first half of 2023. However, this acquisition agreement was too large for the authorities to ignore. This caused the government to interfere and the deal was said to be reviewed for inspection by the US federal trade commission to see if Xbox is getting any unfair competitive advantage by the deal. The interference of the government caused backlash to the people who were in favor of the deal and made them support the acquisition with more passion.
In a meeting held on 28th April 2022, the stockholders of Activision Blizzard approved Microsoft’s approval for the acquisition. The CEO of Activision Blizzard had this to say:
“Today’s overwhelmingly supportive vote by our stockholders confirms our shared belief that, combined with Microsoft, we will be even better positioned to create great value for our players,”
Fast forwards to today, an interview was conducted by the Belgian business publication L’Echo with the president and vice chairman of Microsoft, Brad Smith, where he was inquired about his take on the acquisition. He responded by saying:
“It’s moving fast, at least fast enough for an acquisition of this size.”
He further added:
“One of our attorneys summed it up nicely by saying, “We’re coming to the end of the beginning and now we’re entering the beginning of the middle.”
Quite a beautiful metaphor that sums up their progress nicely. Moreover, the president of Microsoft seemed to regret not knowing the rules before making the huge deal. When asked about the impact of the rules and regulations will be on the company, he responded with:
“…the number of days, months and years that it took us, I wish someone had just told us what the rules were so that we could go through them.”
Brad Smith has finally opened up publicly about the acquisition. Many fans would be relieved since the deal is still going on and hasn’t been canceled. Fans will also await any upcoming information from him or his team.
More articles: Microsoft Got Outbid Twice Before Finally Acquiring Blizzard
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