It’s been less than 24 hours since Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard for a staggering $68.7 billion. Without a doubt, this will be one of the biggest deals the gaming industry has ever seen, and the world is still in shock, if not the biggest.
That’s a lot of money already, but until you look at Microsoft’s own acquisition history, and the entertainment industry in general, it doesn’t really see things in perspective. In 2019, Disney bought Fox in a historic $71.3 billion deal, just $2.6 billion more than Microsoft paid for Activision Blizzard.
This is Microsoft’s largest acquisition to date. Before Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s top was Linkedin, which was worth $26.2 billion in 2016. In more related terms, Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for roughly 10 times the price it paid for Bethesda & Zenimax in 2020.
Most of Microsoft’s other acquisitions pale in comparison. The same goes for the film and television industry. Disney paid only $4 billion for Marvel in 2009, and another $4 billion for Star Wars three years later.
The only other major acquisition that comes to mind in gaming is Take-Two, which bought Zynga for $12.7 billion last week. GTA’s parent company wanted to gain a foothold in the mobile space, and Microsoft achieved the same by acquiring the ownership of Candy Crush maker King (part of Acti Blizz) — an area that has eluded it for years.
