| Ryuu96 said: That 45% is about in line with other premiums paid on public companies, Linkedin was 50%, Take-Two's acquisition of Zynga was 64%. Market-cap is the absolute minimum expected to pay and often the purchaser has to pay a pretty large premium which is typically between 10%-50%...It's normal. Bobby was going to leave with a huge payday no matter what, if it weren't Microsoft, it would have been someone else, or worse, he stays at Activision, that board is just as disgusting as Bobby and were backing him no matter what. Bobby is guaranteed to stay until the buyout is complete which is also normal and would happen if anyone else was acquiring AB...The rest of the board will almost certainly be removed, why would they remain? Microsoft isn't giving stocks to any of them, it's all cash on hand, they'll be no AB board after this deal closes, all of Zenimax's board left too. AB employees didn't want AB to die/shutdown, they wanted change, at least under Microsoft they may get that now, with Bobby pissing off along with his disgusting board, I'm fairly confident (as are AB employees themselves) that working conditions will improve under an image conscious Microsoft, especially with the praises that all their other acquisitions speak about how Xbox treats them from general development conditions to stuff such as diversity, inclusion, etc. Bobby is a piece of shit but sadly in this world this is the only way he was leaving, he likely would have been found guilty, fined a ridiculously small amount compared to what AB makes, paid it and the world would have moved on and continued to buy CoD in droves, that stock would have definitely rebounded eventually. My #1 thought in all of this is improving the workplace conditions of AB employees as I don't give a shit about AB IPs themselves, I'm fairly confident that Microsoft will fix shit in regards to the abusers, especially when Xbox's leadership team is pretty diverse too, I can't see them putting up with the sexism and general awful workplace practices, so yeah, as it stands right now, I'm leaning towards being happy for AB employees but not caring about the IPs themselves. |
Hopefully MS will work with the ABK Workers Alliance and eventually it will lead to unionize all MS's game studios.
However instead of putting pressure on Activision-Blizzard as Phil was 're-evaluating' their relationship in November, it just turns out they were in negotiations with Bobby Kotick. These deals take time. Actions speak louder that words. So I'm not all that confident things will quickly get better for the employees. Nvm these big take overs always lead to shuffling people around and making a lot redundant.
Instead MS and Sony could have worked together to put actual pressure on acti-blizzard. Threaten with ultimatums to remove their stuff from sale if things didn't improve. I'm sure Sony and MS have a code of conduct for publishers as well.
On the other side this move is a clear signal that game pass needs to grow into the mobile market
https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/18/22889457/microsoft-activision-blizzard-acquisition-mobile-gaming-candy-crush
Streaming is the future and mobile games are cheaper to make than full fledged games while making a lot more money.
Core gamers are just there to get gamepass started, the end goal is dominance in the mobile market. For now you can still enjoy great deals on gamepass for console and PC, but the focus will shift to mobile. A monthly fee to get access to an ad free games library on mobile (still full of mtx ofcourse). Premium subscription for streaming. This move has little to do with Sony nor Steam, it's to go after Apple, Google play and Tencent.
Sony makes about 25 billion in gaming revenues yearly, all together. Compare that to the 90 billion mobile gaming makes.
https://www.businessofapps.com/news/eight-mobile-games-reach-over-1-billion-each-in-revenues-in-2021/
That's what you spend 69 billion for, not to try get a bigger piece of the stagnant AAA games market. (stagnant compared to mobile revenues)
But sure, as a silver lining, things could improve for the employees at Activision-Blizzard. Atm I'm sure they're all wondering what will happen to their job and what they will be working on in the future, next to now having a board that doesn't care at all anymore as they're just sitting out their time waiting for their golden handshake.
