I hate exclusivity like this. PC needs to be an option for games. I like playing on console but I definitely would love to play it better on a PC.

Lol, espinage would mean MS had someone they hired to be within another company.  I just mean someone who is more then willing to give information for money.  That's called an informant.  We call them leakers on the net.  Stuff like that happens all the time.  As soon as investors get into the picture, you really never know what can happen.  How do you think we get these leaks in the first place.  

That's the point. MS and Bungie are different companies today, and they still don't seem to want to work together. Since it was Bungie who left, you can't help but wonder if MS is willing to make big offers and allow devs the freedom to do what they want, why isn't MS making them an offer or why isn't Bungie looking to at least partner with MS? Both companies certainly have their reasons, but those reasons may very well be why MS isn't courting larger studios and why larger studios aren't coming to MS for a partnership or sale.

Intel who has twice as much cash as Nvidia just lost a $6-$7 billion dollar bid on a cash deal for another tech company. More money doesn't mean you always win. Nvidia basically spent all their cash on hand to outbid Intel.

MS has $130 bil in cash on hand, yes, but how much of that XB has access to is another question. Based on the recent acquisitions, it seems like MS has given XB a larger budget to help stabilize and grow the brand. Nobody knows how much money XB has to play with, or how much more they can get, but you would think if they were going to go after T2, why wait until after buying up all those other smaller studios? The most logical reasons would be that either they don't have the budget to make that kind of a purchase, or that's not the direction XB wants to go with the budget, or T2 already rejected an offer from them. If XB wants to design and have manufactured 2 or 3 new hardware options going forward, 1 of which is supposedly another performance monster which will no doubt have to be subsidized to some degree, that all comes out of the budget.

In terms of PR for all of MS, it's well known that XB is something that's done on the side and is not something the investors are fond of. Just imagine trying to explain to those investors, after having lost billions on Xbox and 360, that after the disastrous launch of XB1, and the turn around since that has finally made them 'profitable', that they now want to blow $20 bil on one gaming publisher and it's devs and IP. The investors won't care who is being acquired, that's one giant loss in their eyes. Spending a couple billion on acquiring a bunch of smaller studios still isn't something the investors will be thrilled about, but it's so minuscule that they will turn a blind eye for the most part.

Now if XB had no plans to acquire a studio like T2, and PS does want to, then if MS finds out, and is given the chance to bid, they could potentially cough up the cash considering what that would mean for the XB business if PS were to have full control over something that important to the gaming market. They may also look at that $20 bil and see a payback period that makes no business sense whatsoever for them, plus upset investors and a stock decline, and just let it go. There's more than one way to skin a cat, sometimes you gotta splurge, and sometimes you gotta cut your losses.

We truly have no clue what MS and Bungie want to do.  One thing for sure is that Bungie wants to run their own ship and control their destiny.  As long as Bungie is making billions for themselves, they probably never want to go under the umbrella of someone again.

I agree more money does not mean you win every deal, but as I stated if money is the object then the one with the biggest pockets usually comes out on top.  As far as alignment is concerned, going with MS probably still would be better since MS is still heavily PC.  Has a PC publishing arm including their console and seems to have good relationships with other Vendors like nintendo and even Steam.  When looking at how many jobs would be cut going to Sony, the picture looks much grimmer then it would MS.

Until there is actual confirmation that this is happening, we can lock this as the latest official word is that the rumor is false.