Microsoft Bets on Metaverse With $69B Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2022

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is sponsored by Nexo, Abra and FTX US. Microsoft today announced it is acquiring game publisher Activision Blizzard in a nearly $69 billion all-cash deal. The acquisition is being widely seen as a big bet to keep Microsoft competitive in the burgeoning metaverse space. On today’s episode, NLW gives the background and explores the emerging battle between the corporate and the open metaverses. Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1438693620?at=1000lSDb Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/538vuul1PuorUDwgkC8JWF?si=ddSvD-HST2e_E7wgxcjtfQ Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9ubHdjcnlwdG8ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M= Join the discussion: https://discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8 Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownNLW - Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 17% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io. - Abra is proud to sponsor The Breakdown. Join 1M+ users and Conquer Crypto with Abra, a simple and secure app where you can trade 110+ cryptocurrencies, get 0% interest loans using crypto as collateral, and earn interest with up to 14% APY on stablecoins and 8.15% APY on Bitcoin. Visit Abra.com to get started. - FTX US is the safe, regulated way to buy Bitcoin, ETH, SOL and other digital assets. Trade crypto with up to 85% lower fees than top competitors and trade ETH and SOL NFTs with no gas fees and subsidized gas on withdrawals. Sign up at FTX.US today. - “The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Time” by OBOY. Image credit: Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images Entertainment, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.

Transcript

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0:00.0	the open metaverse is effectively saying,
0:02.1	come spend your time in a new place
0:04.5	because of a combination of, one, the economics being better for you,
0:08.7	and two, the principles that we're building our metaverse around being better.
0:13.2	Those aren't uncompelling.
0:14.5	Certainly, the economics are a rational economic incentive
0:17.3	and don't require any principles to compel people to come participate.
0:21.6	But ultimately,
0:27.6	if games really are the entry point, then the games of this open metiverse have to compete on their own terms. Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro,
0:36.6	Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:40.3	The breakdown is sponsored by nexo.io, Abra, and FTX, and produced and distributed by CoinDesk.
0:48.0	What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, January 18th, and today we are talking about why Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard
0:56.5	is all about the metaverse. First, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, I would love it
1:04.0	if you went and subscribe to the show, gave it a rating or a review, or if you want to dig
1:10.2	deeper into the conversation, come join the
1:13.2	Breakers Discord. Over the weekend, we just hit a thousand members and the discussion is always
1:18.1	really interesting. You can find the link in the show notes, or you can go to bit.l.l.l.com
1:24.4	podcast. Finally, one disclosure. In addition to them being a sponsor, I also work with
1:30.1	FTCS. So let's dig into our big news item. And boy, this is going to be a hell of a week already,
1:37.6	I can tell. Usually when there's a big acquisition, there's a lot of debate and discussion about
1:43.2	what it's about. Not so today
1:45.7	where the consensus narrative was that the big business M&A news of the day was entirely about
	...

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