Some international airlines still canceled flights to the U.S. Two of America’s biggest telecom companies will begin a long-delayed expansion of high-speed wireless service today, but they won’t deploy it near some airports to avoid disrupting flight communications. (More on that below.) Of particular interest is whether Microsoft will restrict some Activision titles, like Call of Duty, to Xbox, which could be viewed as anticompetitive shares in Sony fell more than 10 percent on the deal news yesterday.ĪT&T and Verizon delay 5G services near some airports. The Biden administration has been steadily increasing its antitrust enforcement efforts, with a focus on the tech industry. Microsoft expects the deal to take up to 18 months to close. And in a sign of its confidence in the deal, Microsoft will pay Activision up to $3 billion in breakup fees if regulators block the transaction. The company argues that, even after buying Activision, it would still be far smaller in video games than Sony or Tencent. Microsoft has largely escaped the recent rush to clamp down on tech giants like Amazon, Alphabet and Meta - until now. It’s also a bet on avoiding antitrust scrutiny in Washington. (Facebook’s parent company renamed itself Meta, after all.) Right now, the metaverse is mostly a buzzword, but Microsoft hopes that Activision’s technical know-how and popularity will give it a leg up.
Some gamers, who were unhappy with Activision in recent years, said the deal could reverse a decline in the quality of the takeover target’s games.īut longer term, Activision is meant to help Microsoft compete in the so-called metaverse, a union of online and virtual reality that companies have staked their futures on. Almost immediately, adding Activision and its nearly 400 million monthly users would bolster Microsoft’s position in the lucrative video game business as it competes against Sony and rising powers like Amazon and Apple. It’s a big bet on gaming and the internet. That said, Kotick is expected to step down as Activision’s chief once the deal closes. Microsoft did, beginning a weekslong sprint to hammer out an agreement.Īs part of its due diligence, Microsoft looked into the workplace accusations and determined that they were largely in the past, and that the controversy was manageable.
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Kotick dismissed the offer, but - eager to steer his beleaguered company to a safe home - told the software giant to come back with a better offer. In December, with Activision’s stock down sharply, Microsoft reached out to Kotick with a takeover bid. But the tech giant kept in regular contact with Kotick. The company faced pressure from all corners - including from Microsoft, which said its gaming division was reviewing its ties to Activision. Last summer, Activision was dogged by accusations that senior executives ignored sexual harassment and discrimination in its workplace, a controversy that eventually engulfed its C.E.O., Bobby Kotick. Microsoft seized on Activision’s troubles.
For such a momentous deal, it came together relatively quickly, we can report. If completed, it would be Microsoft’s largest-ever deal and the biggest all-cash acquisition in history. Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard is a blockbuster bid to transform the tech giant’s present and its future.
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