“Call of Duty” creators Activision Blizzard has been accused of sexual harassment and discrimination against female employees, but Microsoft announced a $69 billion agreement to acquire the company Tuesday.
This purchase will help Microsoft’s game company develop across mobile, PC, console, and cloud platforms, as well as provide building blocks for the metaverse, Microsoft stated in a statement.
Infamous for titles like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, Microsoft will pay $95 a share in cash to acquire the largest gaming publisher in the United States known for its treatment of women. According to Microsoft, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will remain in his position. Phil Spencer, who oversees Microsoft Gaming, will be in charge of Activision Blizzard when the purchase is completed.
Microsoft will be able to better compete with Sony Corp.’s PlayStation if it adds popular games from Activision’s library to the Xbox system. Activision has a long history with Microsoft’s Xbox console. Microsoft’s unique online network Xbox Live, which enables users to join for multiplayer battles, is mainly responsible for Call of Duty’s success as the publisher’s largest series. Activision publishes most of their titles on Xbox systems.
Activision, one of the gaming industry’s most storied companies, has been entangled in a slew of lawsuits alleging gender discrimination and harassment for months. Employees have been putting pressure on Kotick, the company’s longtime CEO, to step down. When it comes to video games, the end of the pandemic-fueled boom has put a strain on an already-struggling industry. At the end of November, Activision postponed two of the most anticipated titles it had planned to release and issued a sales projection for the fourth quarter that fell well short of Wall Street’s expectations.
As a result of the announcement, Microsoft’s stock fell by 1.3 percent in early trade. Activision’s stock price closed Friday at a 45 percent premium over the offer price. But compared to the stock’s performance in the first half of last year, when a California state agency filed a sexual bias lawsuit, it is a bargain. In February, the stock reached a high of almost $100 per share, but by the end of the year, it had fallen by half.
Activision, which was founded in 1979, is the company behind some of the world’s most successful video game brands, such as Candy Crush, Guitar Hero, Skylanders, Destiny, and the Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk series. There’s no doubt that the Call of Duty series has a long-lasting appeal and is gaining popularity throughout Asia.
China’s mobile version of the game premiered in December 2020 and swiftly climbed the charts. There were tens of millions of new fans who joined, and the firm reported in May that their “first-quarter player investment was on par with that of the rest of the globe combined.
