So, EA is at 36 billion $ market cap right now. If Microsoft tried to take them over, that number would double at least. So we're looking at an investment of at least 70 billion $. No, sir, I don't think that will happen.

Valve won't sell, hostile takeover is impossible as they are not on the stock market. I sure do believe that Microsoft would love to get their dirty hands on steam though, make it exclusive to Windows 10 and whatnot. But sorry, won't happen.

PUBG from what I heard, they already tried but failed miserably.

Buying PUBG would be totally the Microsoft strategy of buying companies at the hight of their worth just to see the value dwindle shortly thereafter.

I actually would like them to buy EA, just so EA can feel what it is like what they do to smaller studios.

I think if this is true is gonna similar to  the Disney buyout of Fox where the point of it was not to make a profit but instead have a bigger and more diverse catalog for their service.

In Microsoft's case it being Gamepass.

I would really prefer if steam remains free from the other big names.
most people that have a gameing pc, run steam anyways, weither its called windows store, and shipped inside windows or not.

I could see MS wrecking steam, not long after they got it.

I could see it getting political too. Not sure if it would basically hand over a monopoly in gameing to MS but yeah.

EA is pretty realistic for Microsoft.
PUBG would be pretty easy, relatively.

Valve is highly unlikely.
Microsoft buying Valve would result in the destruction of the modern PC market.
Get ready to start paying for multiplayer.
Get ready for the death of consumer choice.

Not sure if serious. Obviously clickbait.

?

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-overseas-profits-tax/

Microsoft has around 140 billion USD in cash from overseas profits alone.
Even when they have to pay their 30% tax for bringing it in the US, it should be enough to buy a lot of gaming companies, including EA and Valve.

I think there are just a few tech-companies that would be able to do so -
Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft. It only makes sense for MS though.

They bought Skype for 7 billion USD, they bought Yammer for 1 billion USD and they bought LinkedIN for 26 billion USD. If MS is ready to spent big money on gaming, they certainly could buy all three.

I think UbiSoft would be a perfect target for them to get Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Watch Dogs and Rayman as exclusive IPs.
Maybe TakeTwo? Both companies should be much cheaper, because their market cap is like 50% of EA.

I doubt MS will do this though. They could, but they won't.
Maybe some smaller studios like PUBG, Crytek or CD Project Red, but not a full blown publisher.

Am I the only one who thinks buying the PUBG developer is a terrible move, firstly pretty much 90% of the profits of that game will have already been made, and it's not like they have a string of big games, they have one.

They did well hitting the Battle Royale market right at the start, however it's very likely that Activision, EA, Ubisoft and every big developer out there has some form of Battle Royale game on the go right now so personally I think it would be a terrible purchase.

How would MS wreck Steam? They didn't wreck Minecraft when they brought them, they actually did wonders for Minecraft bringing in Cross Play and bringing it to other consoles like Nintendo. If anything it will convince MS to drop there Windows Store and use Steam as there main weapons against there main Competitors like Apple.

Windows and Steam is the perfect combo for each other, having full control can grant benefits. It would be the best decision to move Windows. 

The idea of Microsoft buying EA is nauseating. I could see them ruining the franchises even more than EA already currently is.