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Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

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Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#211

Post by NetBeck »

coldpie wrote: post #130
palijer wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked around for a while, a d I can't actually find a list of any mergers that antitrust regulations actually prevented. I'm assuming some survivor bias is involved here and we don't hear about the ones that stopped early, but it seems that what I and most folks assume antitrust regulations do is different than what actually happens. I remember the Sirius/XM merge and how those were the only two players in the mar…

It does happen, but it's pretty rare. One example that comes to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_purchase_of_T-Mobile...

That failed merger's poison pill is the reason T-Mobile is the juggernaut it is today. The cash T-Mobile received allowed them to upgrade their network, and customers could roam free on AT&T's 1700MHz frequency.

AT&T's threat assessment of T-Mobile was correct at the time.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#212

Post by tommiegannert »

koheripbal wrote: post #80
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #17

Suddenly, the reason for the recent employee purge seems more clear. They never fired anybody for bad behavior before, and now, just soon to be aquired, they do.

20 employees out of 9500 employees is not significant. You are reading too much from too little.

It could be that the introduction of a process was part of the deal. That it only affected 20 might be a reason the deal was finalized.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#213

Post by madeofpalk »

sto11z wrote: post #143
MrJagil wrote: post #63

The old Blizzard always seemed much closer to Apple than Microsoft in culture. An incredible attention to detail and the onboarding experience, clean, fun and friendly design and a slightly rebellious attitude expressed through their willingness to enter new markets. The "new" Microsoft though, really is different than the old and might actually do quite well in stewarding this supposedly sinking ship into fairer wat…

Apple doesn't have a gaming division. Why would they be interested in acquiring Blizzard?

You would be shocked to know Apple was days late to buying Bungie, creator of Halo.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#214

Post by OnlyLys »

fnord123 wrote: post #126
bitwize wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft owns CoD, Doom, Quake, Minecraft, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and soon Warcraft, Starcraft, and Overwatch. They're becoming the Disney of gaming, which is scary, but hey, Microsoft gonna Microsoft.

Awesome news for gaming on Linux. As we all know Microsoft <3 Linux.

It's not like Activision / Blizzard really cared about Linux gaming anyways.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#215

Post by bitwize »

ArtWomb wrote: post #167
bitwize wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft owns CoD, Doom, Quake, Minecraft, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and soon Warcraft, Starcraft, and Overwatch. They're becoming the Disney of gaming, which is scary, but hey, Microsoft gonna Microsoft.

>>> Disney of Gaming Yes. I mean the sub-headline is XboxGamePass is now 25M+ subscribers. Logical next step isn't even games: it's convergence. Curious we don't see similar consolidation in the Japanese market: Square Enix, Konami, Capcom, Tecmo, Bandai Namco, From. Even Nintendo. All seem attractive targets, no?

That's because the Japanese game companies are more or less in friendly coopetition with each other. Both Namco and Sega run game centers (arcades), which means they're buying each other's games to populate said centers (as well as other manufacturers' games). And then there's Smash Bros., in which many of Nintendo's competitors (including Microsoft -- twice) went to Nintendo and said, "hey, could you feature our characters too?" And then there's Mario & Sonic at the Olympics...

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#217

Post by ethbr0 »

intended wrote: post #94
s3r3nity wrote: post #16

Congratulations to Phil Spencer, who started out leading an upstart team at Microsoft for a new game console called "Xbox" and is now "CEO of Microsoft Gaming" - a Microsoft Senior Leadership position. Oh, and he now leads the third biggest gaming company on the planet: > When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. It will be interes…

I would hope so, I dont see activision blizzard being a great acquistion.

Hopefully they fire most of the management, retain what technical talent they decide, and effectively reboot the entire company.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#219

Post by madeofpalk »

glanzwulf wrote: post #77
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #34

I wonder if this will trigger any antitrust lawsuits. I know Microsoft isn't that of the 90's but it seems like the political situation is ripe for politicians to go after "big tech" and this is a pretty major acquisition that will help Xbox be the dominant player in terms of content.

Nothing will happen as we live in the post-Disney/Fox merger.

On the other hand, UK regulators blocked FB/Giphy and Nvidia/ARM mergers.
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