Why Microsoft Is Paying $75 Billion for Activision Blizzard

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News, Business News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced its biggest acquisition ever: It'll buy the video gaming juggernaut Activision Blizzard for $75 billion. Microsoft's betting the deal will help it build a new way to sell games to consumers, which it calls the "Netflix of games." WSJ's Aaron Tilley explains Microsoft's strategy and the risks it contains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Yesterday morning, the Wall Street Journal broke some major news about Microsoft.
0:11.1	The company was making an acquisition, a big one.
0:16.4	The deal news of the morning, Activision being bought by Microsoft and Activision blizzard,
0:21.6	a huge leader in video game development.
0:24.6	This would be Microsoft's largest acquisition ever and the biggest cash funded takeover
0:30.4	since the start of the pandemic.
0:32.7	This deal will make Microsoft the world's third largest gaming company and it's willing
0:37.8	to pay big for that position, $75 billion.
0:43.5	How big of a deal is a $75 billion deal in gaming?
0:48.4	It's gargantuan, it is market shifting.
0:53.0	That's our colleague Aaron Tilly, he covers Microsoft and he says with its gargantuan
0:57.9	deal, the company is sending a loud message about its gaming ambitions.
1:04.0	Microsoft has had an interesting strategy, it's been rolling out for the past few years.
1:10.3	It is essentially trying to create the Netflix for gaming.
1:14.6	Activision is really the latest iteration of the strategy to build the ultimate gaming
1:19.7	subscription platform.
1:23.8	Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business and power.
1:28.3	I'm Kate Limbaugh, it's Wednesday, January 19th.
1:36.8	Coming up on the show, Microsoft's $75 billion bet on Activision.
1:56.4	Microsoft made its name on the PC, but for decades, it's also been a big player in the gaming
2:02.0	world.
2:03.0	So when did Microsoft first get into gaming?
	...

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