Think of it this way, which is the way it's meant to be thought of: Microsoft isn't "losing" $69bn, they're changing $69bn from cash into assets, the $69bn becomes ABK in assets (also, Microsoft will make that back quickly either way). The money they make from Activision-Blizzard will be more than the money made from interest on that $69bn.

Also...Activision definitely does not have only 1 mainstream franchise...There's Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, all of those IP are massive. Call of Duty and Diablo's most recent entry just broke records for their respective franchises, Lol. 

In addition, King is massive, Candy Crush is massive and 36-47% of ABK's recent revenue came from Mobile. Activision-Blizzard pulls around $7-$8bn in revenue per year, and around $1-$2bn profits per year. ABK is still the biggest third party publisher in terms of revenue and profit.

Activision provides a boon everywhere, to Game Pass, to their PC efforts and to their Mobile efforts, it's not just Game Pass they want ABK for.

Welcome to the fun thread.  No need to make your own.

Microsoft fucking cited United Stated vs Microsoft Corp antitrust case in 2001 to back their points up. 💀😂

This is like "we know what we're talking about, we've fucking been through it before!"

I totally forgot about Blizzard and King being part of Activision.

After I posted my comment I went and saw their annual income reports, and definitely it's a smart investment. I stand corrected. I was in my gamer bubble and only thought of CoD being the money generator which is only a small percentage of the big picture.

I have no clue what you mean but yay and thank you < 3

It looks like selling the cloud streaming rights is the "small and discrete divesture".

One potential concession to the CMA under consideration by Microsoft is a move to sell cloud streaming rights to its catalogue of games to another provider in the UK, according to people familiar with the discussions. The arrangement might see Microsoft in effect exit the cloud gaming market in the UK or hand over operations of a games streaming platform for its Xbox console to a third party.

Microsoft has sounded out potential investors and operators about such a deal, which might assuage the CMA's concerns that the Xbox maker would have too much control over the nascent market for cloud gaming.

Bloomberg earlier reported details of the cloud discussions. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard declined to comment.

Gareth Sutcliffe, analyst at Enders Analysis, said that such a deal would be "really clunky" for consumers but "might be a way around the CMA". "Microsoft will be running the numbers for a UK carve-out that will please the CMA," he said. "They would be looking at least-worst options.

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That would be what the CMA calls "IP remedies":

Remedies that provide access to IP by licensing or assignment of patents, brands, data or other IP rights may be viewed in general as a specialized form of asset divestiture. The parties acquiring the IP rights should be able to compete effectively with the merger parties as a result of the acquisition. Where the terms of an IP remedy result in a material ongoing link between the merger parties and the parties gaining the IP (eg providing access to new releases or upgrades of technology or data), the measure may take on some of the characteristics of a behavioural commitment, which requires ongoing monitoring and enforcement.

Source: Idas

I'm not a huge of the deal personally. My biggest positive is that Blizzard is finally removed from the corporate clutches of Activision although I doubt it'll make much of a difference as damage has been done for years now and pretty much all the creative leads have since left to found new studios or retired.

I think the corporate structure will not be touched. The way Activision works now will probably be the same, me thinks. So blizzard will be reporting to whomever is at the helm of Activision when the deal is done, which will probably still be Bobby Kotick.

It would be dumb, in business terms, to successfully buy a successful company then mess with how they do business.