Why not buy something to counter Google.? or Apple.? may be yahoo again.

Well we don't know if it'll be used for gaming interests so hard to do much speculation. However, if it was for something gaming, they might acquire some small independent developers and mesh them into a larger one they already own or a new one. Possibly "money hat" some other developers for some big games. So will be interesting but once again we don't know how much, if any, will be used for their gaming entertainment interests.

you know apples 24.5 billion and no debt, maybe the two could just buy the rest of the gaming industry and start a new monopoly war as noted in a prior thread with 25B you can buy take 2 acti blizzard and EA all in cash with a 20% mark up . and still have bling left over

@mr bubbles prior to this offering MS only had 20.7 billion

http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/23/microsoft-closes-the-quarter-with-less-cash-than-apple/

though right now both do have more then stated in that article

Excellent news!

Microsoft shopping = Success!

Let's hope and dream together:

- They buy Yahoo (getting stronger search engine marketshare)
and/or
- They buy Nintendo (getting all the IP and the studios)
and/or
- They buy SCE (only the Playstation division (with debts), the one that Sony probably don't want anymore)
and/or
- They buy SquareSoft (bringing all games exclusively to Xbox360, canceling FF13 and Vs on the PS3, creating a Megaton in Japan)

Gates + Ballmer = Power to do everything.

^

If they did anything after the Yahoo part then that would probably the craziest thing thats ever happened in the history of video games.

I don't expect major acquisitions for the gaming-division.

Epic is the first company that comes to my mind for this.

Crytek would be great as well. But let's wait and see.

eeeh? This E3 is going to give me a heart attack if all these rumors continue.

Why does everyone think this is gaming related? Just because we're on Vgchartz doesn't mean that everything has to do with videogames (especially when the article was linked from Yahoo). It wasn't even linked from the gaming section of Yahoo, so most of these posts seem like knee-jerk reactions to me.

Most likely they'll buy a software company, but one that doesn't have to do with making games. Microsoft has been swallowing up other companies and crushing the competition for a long time now, this just seems like business as usual (especially with so many companies struggling).

Summary: Microsoft took out a debt of 3.75 billion dollars because interest rates are so low. They stated that this is intended to be used for acquisitions.

 However, this is Microsoft as a whole, not the Xbox division. There is a 95%+ chance this is intended for other fields, like application software or Internet opportunities (e.g. Facebook).

hmm.. I don't think this is for the gaming division...