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Microsoft's US $69 billion acquisition of video games developer Activision was the world’s largest tech deal so far. The merger inquiries by the UK #Competition and #Markets Authority (‘CMA’), US Federal Trade Commission and the #European #Commission (‘EC’) have provided competition practitioners with all the thrills and spills of Activision’s video game Call of Duty. In the Competition Bulletin’s fifth article, Jeremy Collins traces the progress of the merger investigations with particular focus on cloud game streaming markets, and then looks at the reasons for the divergent outcomes of the CMA and EC investigations. To read more: https://bit.ly/4cgyszD Sign up to receive the next edition of the Competition Bulletin here: https://bit.ly/46dyYuE   #Hausfeld #CompetitionBulletin #Competition

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is facing a challenge from the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC filed a complaint in a federal appeals court on Wednesday, accusing Microsoft of contradicting its pledge to allow Activision Blizzard to operate independently post-acquisition. Last week's downsizing, which affected employees of Activision Blizzard, is being viewed by the FTC as a contradiction of Microsoft's representations in this proceeding. and on top of that, the FTC is asking for a temporary pause on Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard as it further investigates potential antitrust issues. #microsoft #techgiants #activisionblizzard #mergersandacquisitions #ftc #antitrust #regulation #technologynews

The COVID-19 pandemic increased M&A activity in the gaming industry, with companies eager to spend money on extending their footprint within a booming market – however, as of 2024, the tide has turned, and the gaming sector is currently dealing with the consequences of high levels of industry consolidation and overspending in better times. Check out our new report on video gaming industry M&A for some facts and figures on the current state of the market.. https://lnkd.in/esgxqeUG https://lnkd.in/eB9dYCpB

Microsoft has reported yet another impressive earnings report, with revenues of $62 billion and profits of $21.9 billion. However, what's caught people's attention is the impact of the recent $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition on the company's gaming revenue. Microsoft has reported an overall increase of 49%, with a significant 44% attributed to the Activision deal. While the company hasn't broken down the specific numbers, this is a clear indication of the power of strategic acquisitions in driving growth. #microsoft #techgiants #activisionblizzard #financialreporting #earningsreport #gamingindustry #technologynews

What does #Disney's $1.5bn investment in #Fortnite developer #EpicGames mean for both companies, and advertisers and gamers? Thanks to Shay Thompson, Matthew Day and Nick Wright for their insight on this topic! I'll link to my piece on this in the comment section but I was interested to learn that while there are big mergers/acquisitions, like Activision Blizzard and Microsoft, and investments from other tech and entertainment companies like Netflix, the #gaming industry has been hit by thousands of layoffs and restructuring this year. Which leads me to ask what's next for gaming and how does advertising figure into its future? Let me know below or you can email me privately. 

This is a good point. History goes away when mergers happen. And then it gets refashioned in simple form and in micro for PR. Activision Blizzard gets better management but may be more obscure. The game industry needs more transparency, not less. We need more game publishers not less. ----- GamesIndustryBiz: "Activision Blizzard goes into the black box | This Week in Business. The Call of Duty publisher has been good at detailing its business, but that won't happen under Microsoft" (Brendan Sinclair) (Oct. 20, 2023) "This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry. I've used this space previously to talk about why I'm not a fan of the deal given Microsoft's historical abuse of its dominant position in operating systems and its behavior whenever any kind of governmental oversight threatens to rein in its business somehow. Those concerns haven't changed and remain of primary importance, but there's a good chance you've heard me or plenty of other people complain about them already. So today I'm going to complain about something smaller, but still significant: What this means for Activision Blizzard's investor relations website. Wait, wait! Come back, let me explain! Last year I did a clickbait listicle on The Top 5 Investor Relations Pages as a joke. Well, the premise of it being a way to attract traffic was a joke, but the praise I gave out to the companies involved was real. As much as I give Activision Blizzard a hard time, I genuinely appreciate its investor relations website Some companies run their investor relations sites like they don't want anyone to be able to find anything useful on them, while others are actually pretty upfront and transparent (relative to the rest of the industry), keeping a thorough archive of earnings reports, press releases, and all manner of little details that can be very helpful for a columnist who likes to juxtapose the professional facade of the games industry with the shockingly unprofessional nonsense that transpires at basically every level of this thing. And as much as I give Activision Blizzard a hard time, I genuinely appreciate its investor relations website, which is living on borrowed time, as Activision Blizzard no longer has investors it needs to relate to. Activision Blizzard's investor relations site is rationally laid out and features a wealth of financial information and preserved press releases dating back more than two decades. It also demonstrates the company's commendable commitment to the historical record. I can only imagine the restraint/lack of shame it requires for the company not to have memory holed some of the stuff on there a long time ago." (keep reading, long article) GamesIndustryBiz: https://lnkd.in/gSrUDgJu #gameindustry #gamehistory #activisionblizzard #videogames

Microsoft and Tencent led gaming M&A in the last decade $87 billion in their largest four deals 1️⃣ $68.7 billion for Activision Blizzard 2️⃣ $8.6 billion for Supercell 3️⃣ $7.5 billion for ZeniMax 4️⃣ $2.5 billion for Mojang The gaming M&A has been booming. In 1997, the total transaction value for M&A in this industry was $258 million. In the last decade, the average annual increased to $39 billion. Here is a full article by Weiming on the complete global gaming M&A landscape: https://shorturl.at/csO26 Check out the top 10 global gaming M&A dealmakers in the image. This does not include Savvy Games Group, which is backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and has invested $20+ billion in gaming M&A in the last two years. Without counting the massing of Microsoft's Activision Blizzard, the total gaming M&A dealmaking reverted to the historical trend average of the 2019 level. In the geographic scoreboard, the leaders in both transaction volume and total transaction value are: 🥇 The United States 🥈 EMEA 🥉 APAC What are your opinions on global gaming M&A activities #gaming #Mergers #Acquisitons #Microsoft

This $2b deal could prove Q4 is indeed Bullish HoldCos love game IPs cos high value comes through acquisitions. Essentially, You buy well, You merry! Playtika will acquire SuperPlay for $700m rising to $2b. And the arrangement of this deal is particularly interesting. First, let’s understand why SuperPlay is sought after: The Israel-based gaming developer released 2 games that has generated over $200m in lifetime revenue: DICE Dreams and Domino Dreams… These games have around 30m downloads combined and 1.7m+ DAUs. It’s a success story so far, and with 2 more games in development, Playtika wants in on this. The Deal: Up front costs of $700m is coming outta pocket for Playtika, their Cash at hand is healthy enough to fund the payment. Also, they’ve earned quality profits in the last 3 years. $2b is clearly a larger deal size (about 2x of combined last 3 year buys) but the deal is structured to continue payments until 2027 and total costs will depend on financial targets over that period as Playtika will keep the original SuperPlay team on to continue with operations. Playtika is pursuing a gamble, they get to buy 2 profitable IPs for less / hefty sum, but this deal gives them ample time for current games to generate enough cash to pay part of their obligations & time for SuperPlay devs to come up short, so they pay less 🌚 Integrating SuperPlay shouldn’t pose problems as the company was created by Playtika alumni and the idea is to retain some independence. Analysts say the deal is priced above fair market value but it all just adds to the bullish Q4. Valuations could skyrocket again!! Come over to X for better visuals: https://lnkd.in/ddiswGCp Photo: SuperPlay

Ha, been there, done that, didn't even get a t-shirt :D In my opinion, there's going to be a lot of head scratching in a few years, among the PC and console publishers, when the audience tires of the same old product being repackaged and resold. Doing something new is how the hits, that drive this business, are found. #gamedevelopment #gamedev #gamesindustry

Pomerantz recently overcame a motion to dismiss its investor suit against the gaming company Playstudios, Inc. Playstudios mainly develops casino games for mobile and desktop. In 2021, Playstudios went public via a SPAC merger. A central component of the merger process was the company’s development of a role-playing game called Kingdom Boss, which the company claimed would bring in significant revenue in 2021 and 2022. According to the complaint, Playstudios failed to disclose to investors that users had begun to report major problems with the game, including bugs, lagging, and frequent crashing. In February 2022, Playstudios announced that they had missed their 2021 revenue targets, were reducing their 2022 revenue projection by over $100 million, and were suspending development of Kingdom Boss, leading to a significant drop in the company’s share price. #SecuritiesLaw #InstitutionalInvestors #SecuritiesLitigation #Gaming #RPG