Microsoft’s $68.7 Billion Acquisition of Activision, Investor Chamath Palihapitiya’s Controversial Uyghur Comments & Gopuff’s Private Label Launch

TechCheck

CNBC

Disruptors, Cnbc, Investing, Tech, Management, Business, Technology, Faang

4.5 • 66 Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our anchors start today’s show covering Microsoft’s plans to acquire video game publisher Activision for $68.7 billion, with insight from Wells Fargo Chairman of Global Internet Investment Banking Bob Peck. Then, CNBC’s Mike Santoli looks at the S&P and Nasdaq’s ongoing sell-off, and Irreverent Labs CEO Rahul Sood joins for more on the mega-deal between Activision and Microsoft. Our Jon Fortt also recaps his interview with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna from the National Retail Federation’s conference over the weekend, and the team covers billionaire investor and Golden State Warriors part-owner Chamath Palihapitiya saying “nobody cares” about the human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in China on a recent episode of his podcast. Later, food delivery service Gopuff CEO Rafael Ilishayev discusses the company’s expansion into private label products, and CNBC’s Ylan Mui reports on big tech regulation ahead of today’s press conference with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Carl Kintanilla. You're listening to CNBC's Tech Check. Our show is live weekdays at 11 a.m. Eastern.
0:05.8	Listen in.
0:27.6	Good Tuesday morning. Welcome to Tech Check. I'm Carl Kintania with Deirdreboza and John Ford.
0:33.1	Massive M&A news this morning. Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
0:43.2	An all-cash deal expected to close in 2023. Activision's CEO, Bobby Kodick, who's been under fire for his leadership at a company mired in sexual harassment investigations.
0:47.8	Just this morning, it terminated 37 more employees as part of an internal probe.
0:49.9	He'll stay on as CEO for the time being.
0:55.4	Kodick and the head of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer joined Squawk on the street earlier this morning on what led to the deal.
1:03.9	Microsoft has this great long history like we do that goes back to the 1980s in video gaming.
1:13.4	They have the incredible resources, an incredible pipeline of talent, a culture that is aligned like ours for a focus on creating a really great work experience. And so while there were, there are a lot of other companies
1:18.8	that would be interested in a company like ours, Microsoft was clearly the company that
1:23.9	made the most sense. That $95 share price, a 45% premium to Friday's close.
1:30.3	A deal comes just a week, of course, as you know, after TIG2's $11 billion
1:34.3	Zinga acquisition.
1:36.3	John, lots of implications for the Metaverse, for gaming, and for the overall environment of M&A in 22.
1:42.3	Yes, yes, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.
1:46.1	Of course, this has to get all kinds of approval.
1:49.4	And we talk about big tech M&A and kind of the scrutiny of that,
1:53.9	especially with the Biden administration in and Lena Khan and whatnot.
1:57.7	There is no bigger big tech that actually does big MNA than Microsoft, right? Market
2:04.0	cap-wise, yes, Apple's bigger, but the biggest thing Apple ever bought was Beats, right? It was like,
2:08.6	what, $3 billion, some small number by today's standards. So will this fly through? I don't know,
	...

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