Lol, honestly that's one of the main reasons I'd like to see MS buy a Japanese game company. Get tired of seeing that line used.

Anything new? Anything anticipated today if so when?

This does not make sense to me.  If there is a breakup fee at a certain point in time and that time expire why would they get sued for taking advantage of their option.  There is nothing and I mean nothing holding ABK from terminating this deal besides that they feel that its going to go through and MS offer the best deal they can get at this time.  If ABK feel they could get a better deal, I am sure they would vote 98% on that deal because at the end of the day its all about the money.  ABK is no more beholden to continue to go along with this deal unless the ability for success is much better than any other option that could come along.

None of what you say makes sense because the whole point of having a termination fee and both parties can walk away after that date passes is exactly the reason you state.  Anything before that date, yes, ABK could get sued, anything after that date, ABK can do whatever they like.  MS would not be pushing for a new deal unless they wanted to make sure to avoid that situation where ABK could just quit anytime between now and when MS or even ABK feel the CMA would finalize their decision.

Now do I believe the deal is happening yes, but that does not mean some BS could crop up and the scenario I put out there could not happen.  As far as shareholders are concerned is not who purchase ABK, its how high of a value they can get for their money.

Nope. Maybe they'll extend today, or the next few days, or next week, Lol.

I was looking at exactly how many studios MS is gonna have outside of mobile after the transaction, currently, they have 22 (excluding Xbox games Studios), and Activision have 12 (by their wiki page though I don't know if some are mobile dedicated), Blizzard does not have an as easy digestible listing on the wiki, their web site list 9 countries as a possible location to be with hiring potential but their wiki page state (9 studios and offices) meaning not all are studios?

Anyway, they should have in the low 40's studios mostly AAA dedicated or will be AAA in the future.

Considering other possible acquisitions:

MS: I don't see MS doing any other multi $B acquisition any time soon for many reasons:

1. Of course, as many mentioned, regulations have been challenging, to say the least, and will certainly refrain MS from doing such transactions in the near future.
2. They certainly don't want to fuel any monopolistic talks even though they're still far from any such.
3. There will be a tremendous amount of work to be done with ABK (considering they follow true on setting CoD on a 2 years cycle)
4. considering a dev cycle of 5 years, it makes for an average of 2 AAA /quarter which is 2x the previous goal of 1 set by Spencer a few years back (again considering the same change as in 1 freeing most support studios as a result )
5. MS is certainly taking a risk here, calculated and mitigated in various ways but still, It's likely MS will not finance another such acquisition anytime soon, not before impacts are measurable, measured, and judged satisfying, meaning any funding for such will entirely be left to Xbox themselves.

Of course, Xbox on its own will still have the ability for targeted acquisition of the likes they've done in 2018. But I think an easier target first would be an increased focus to get the Japanese scenes to not so easily disregard Xbox. They're already hard at work on this issue apparently and I hope they succeed even without acquisitions.

Sony: I don't think Sony will go for a big acquisition themselves either, their current strategies are engineered to maintain high margin profit with the exception of the risk they take in already 2 segments GaaS and VR. Of course, they'll also continue doing targeted acquisitions.

The only caveat I see with Sony is if MS's position makes them reevaluate their day-and-date strategies for PC and Subs, they might also change their stance and try to target a big player. but low probability of either of those 2 steps being short term.

Nintendo: is gonna enjoy CoD and... that's pretty much it, don't see any acquisition on their part.

So I think the games are mostly sets at the very least up until the end of the generations and the context regarding 10th gen releases, what do you think?

Yes, if ABK had to publish a meeting to leave the deal then yes the stock would take a hit.  If ABK then publish a deal where Apple is purchasing them, their stock would jump just as much if not more.  Stocks value go up and down so that is not a big worry especially since it can be a temporary thing.

All the no shop and no Solicitation is gone because the deal has reach its termination point.  ABK does not have to directly communicate to any suiter they are willing to sell, they already did so with MS.  The suiters will come to them and right now in the gaming space its going to be a war on content.  All interested players are looking for content and any new player like Apple or Google need a company at the size of ABK to spring into the market.

I do not remember who approach who first.  At the time Bobby was going though some stuff and I thought that it was Phil that threw out a life line and Bobby said how much you willing to invest.  With everyone really interested in seeing ABK land somewhere, it really does not have to be with MS.

The fact we have not heard about an extension to the deal well before this termination date of today suggest to me that ABK is seriously considering other options and when money like 70Billion is getting thrown around, anything could happen.

They have a legal responsibility to do everything they can which is in the shareholders best interest. Shareholders best interest right now is this deal going through. If they quit now, when the valuation is at $90+ a share, and tank the valuation back down to mid 70s, right at the final hurdle, then Activision's CEO and Board have caused damaged to shareholder value which was easily unavoidable.

The company has to answer to its shareholders and they don't get that $3bn. The valuation loss would far exceed the $3bn that Microsoft gives them and that affects every single shareholder. There is therefore a legal responsibility holding Activision back from terminating the deal and a financial one, it is in their best interest to extend the deal at this stage of the game rather than taking $3bn but tank their company value.

Activision "feeling" they can get a better deal is irrelevant to shareholders, they would need proof, they would need to show they have a better deal, not just words, it would have to be backed up by action and proof. They can't just be like "oh, we might get a better deal so for now, all of you will have to suffer incase we maybe get a better deal"

And right now the odds of them getting a better deal are slim to none. They need to find a company that not only has the money to outbid Microsoft at $95 a share, but also one which is even interested and one that also wouldn't face regulatory scrutiny for another 6-12 months. There are few companies who match that criteria and they'd need that offer now, not later.

It'd likely have to be a decent outbid too, I don't think another company could simply do $96 a share versus Microsoft's $95 a share because Microsoft's current offer will almost certainly be wrapped up next month whilst a new offer will be another 6-12 months of regulatory scrutiny, uncertainty and people want to be paid out now.

Not to mention as I said, Activision was acquired during a period of exploding growth and shit interest rates, times have changed and that decreases the amount of suitors even further as to who is willing to spend that much in the current climate. Activision could be acquired for lower, but right now you're asking someone to beat $95 a share, that's a tall order.

Activision-Blizzard has a legal responsibility to do everything in their power to get the deal through, the termination fee has specific reasons however as to how either side would be paid out and that's usually if there's no path forward for the deal. Now that the timeline is about to be met, they'll be no restrictions and Activision can back out for any reason.

Your mistake here is treating today as if things were a few months ago when Activision's stock was nowhere near Microsoft's offered price and they had multiple block attempts against them, if the deadline had passed then, maybe we would see Activision stop because the share price wouldn't drop so hard and they could be more justified with the CMA/FTC blocks against them.

However things are far different now, the stock price is at $90+ now because the vast majority of shareholders now believe this deal is going through, they're right at the finish line, this deal will pass in either July or August, everyone can see that but they couldn't a few months ago, it makes it a lot harder for Bobby to justify backing out now, $3bn or not.

All the no shop and no Solicitation is gone because the deal has reach its termination point.

No, the deal is still enforceable until they actually leave, the termination date is only a point where ABK does not need reasons to get out of it, until they do the deal is still fully in effect. If Bobby were to single-handedly get out of the deal he would get sued by shareholders losing way much more than $3b in valuation they were already feeling in their pockets. Bobby told himself during the FTC trial, his responsibility as CEO is to the shareholders. So unless shareholder themselves voice their willingness to get out of the deals it's simply ain't happening.

They already have approached many suiter as highlighted by Ryuu, I'm not seeing in any way why those other entities will see more value now in ABK than they did prior to this deal.

The fact we have not heard about an extension to the deal well before this termination date of today suggest to me that ABK is seriously considering other options and when money like 70Billion is getting thrown around, anything could happen.

To me, it suggests there's no hurry else I would find it highly probable leaks will have occurred displaying MS struggle by now. Also, it's possible that MS and ABK are discussing a new arrangement but won't put it forth for a vote until specifically requested by shareholders. The confidence of all parties seems to be high that it would go through.

Anyway, time will tell.
One thing is for sure, if you are right, the amount of salt added to planet Earth would give reason to Elon Musk to seek to establish a colony on Mars.

I've been scavenging the last few days to find my old 360 CODs to no avail hopefully this deal closes asap so they can be on gamepass. The numbers are going to be nuts if that happens.

Their value is right now $93 a share, if they were to abandon now it would likely drop to $75 a share, maybe lower.

If Activision-Blizzard says Apple is acquiring them, that is now another 6-12 months of regulatory scrutiny, uncertainty hurts market valuation, their stock's ceiling would be what Apple is offering them, not more, so Apple would have to offer $96 a share at minimum but their stock would not exceed $96 a share. But it likely wouldn't come close to that in the initial stages, people would likely sell off and then rebuy later, when Microsoft acquired ABK, their stock wasn't $90+ a share all throughout and there's little reason to assume it would with Apple when closure would be maybe a year away.

Activision already communicated with suitors during the best possible time to acquire them, if anything, $95 a share in today's environment would be a large overpayment for Activision-Blizzard so it makes it less likely some new company will come in wanting to beat that. I don't know why on Earth you think Google of all companies after the past few years would be interested in ABK or interested in spending that much on a single acquisition in a sector they barely give a damn about, Lol.

Apple? Doesn't need ABK. Microsoft has more than double the amount of cash that Apple has, Apple would need to heavily borrow or do stock options and when has Apple ever shown interest in the Console or PC gaming market? As for Mobile...Not like Apple needs help in the Mobile space, Lol. Meta already rejected ABK. Amazon has no interest.

Seriously, I see only Saudi Arabia as the one with the money to outbid Microsoft and the interest in the market.

Activision-Blizzard were shopping themselves and then came to Microsoft after other offers were refused.

Doesn't really mean anything that we're hearing about an extension only now, the termination date isn't going to kill the deal, they can still negotiate even after the date and they can add a "no-competition" clause as Tencent did when they entered talks to acquire Leyou, they entered a clause that Leyou couldn't negotiate with anyone else. They may have already been discussing for weeks, just because we heard it from Reuters now doesn't mean talks only started yesterday, they may have also thought the deal would squeeze in before the termination date.