Activision Blizzard

Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device

Published

3 years ago

January 18, 2022

Legendary games, immersive interactive entertainment and publishing expertise accelerate growth in Microsoft’s Gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud.

With three billion people actively playing games today, and fueled by a new generation steeped in the joys of interactive entertainment, gaming is now the largest and fastest-growing form of entertainment. Today, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc., a leader in game development and interactive entertainment content publisher. This acquisition will accelerate the growth in Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse.

Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion, inclusive of Activision Blizzard’s net cash. When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. The planned acquisition includes iconic franchises from the Activision, Blizzard and King studios like “Warcraft,” “Diablo,” “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” in addition to global eSports activities through Major League Gaming. The company has studios around the word with nearly 10,000 employees.

Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard, and he and his team will maintain their focus on driving efforts to further strengthen the company’s culture and accelerate business growth. Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming.

European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

“Players everywhere love Activision Blizzard games, and we believe the creative teams have their best work in front of them,” said Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming. “Together we will build a future where people can play the games they want, virtually anywhere they want.”

“For more than 30 years our incredibly talented teams have created some of the most successful games,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard. “The combination of Activision Blizzard’s world-class talent and extraordinary franchises with Microsoft’s technology, distribution, access to talent, ambitious vision and shared commitment to gaming and inclusion will help ensure our continued success in an increasingly competitive industry.”

Mobile is the largest segment in gaming, with nearly 95% of all players globally enjoying games on mobile. Through great teams and great technology, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will empower players to enjoy the most-immersive franchises, like “Halo” and “Warcraft,” virtually anywhere they want. And with games like “Candy Crush,” Activision Blizzard´s mobile business represents a significant presence and opportunity for Microsoft in this fast-growing segment.

The acquisition also bolsters Microsoft’s Game Pass portfolio with plans to launch Activision Blizzard games into Game Pass, which has reached a new milestone of over 25 million subscribers. With Activision Blizzard’s nearly 400 million monthly active players in 190 countries and three billion-dollar franchises, this acquisition will make Game Pass one of the most compelling and diverse lineups of gaming content in the industry. Upon close, Microsoft will have 30 internal game development studios, along with additional publishing and esports production capabilities.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review and Activision Blizzard’s shareholder approval. The deal is expected to close in fiscal year 2023 and will be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share upon close. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard

Mobile Gaming Market to Hit $165.54 Billion by 2026. M&A and Partnerships to Drive Innovation in Technology and Gaming Experience in the Market

Published

3 years ago

February 17, 2022

GamingAmericas.com

According to the latest research report by Arizton, in the mobile gaming market there are more than 300 app stores available in the Chinese market, which is offering significant growth opportunities to mobile game vendors.

Mobile Gaming Market Report Scope

Report Coverage	Details
Market Size in 2021	$87.56 Billion
Market Size in 2027	$165.54 Billion
Base Year	2020
Forecast	2021-2026
Largest Market	APAC
Forecast Period	Latin America
Segments Covered	Platform, Business Model, Category, Age group, Category and Geograpy
Region Covered	APAC, North America, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa
Countries Covered	China, Japan, South Korea, India, Rest of APAC, US, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Rest of Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Rest of Latin America, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, and Rest of MEA

Key Highlights:

The Global Mobile Games Market is expected to grow significantly at a CAGR of 11.20% during the forecast period. The market is expected to witness the highest demand from APAC and North America region.
The emerging trends such as cloud gaming, AR & VR enabled games and increasing popularity of e-sports is projected to support the market growth.
App Store holds the highest revenue share in the market. However, Google Play is expected to witness the highest growth rate at a CAGR of 11.85% owing to the growing penetration of android smartphones, especially in developing countries worldwide.
Freemium business model is the major revenue generator for the vendors in the market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.48% from 2021-2026.
Majority of the gamers in the market belong to the age group of 24-44 years and are the major revenue generators for the market.
The market consists of various vendors including Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Tencent Holdings, Zynga, and others. There is intense competition among vendors for market share. As a result, a lot of merger & acquisitions are taking place to expand and improve the offerings to survive in the market.
COVID-19 has positively impacted the global mobile games market. Due to the lockdown measures worldwide, the individuals were able to secure ample leisure time, thereby leading to an increase in the amount of time spent on mobile phones which, in turn, led to a rise in demand for various sources of entertainment including mobile games. Mobile game downloads increased from nearly 1.7 billion in Q1 2020 to nearly 2.8 billion in Q3 2020, thereby witnessing a growth of more than 60%.

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Revenue | 2021−2027
Market Dynamics – Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities
Market Segmentation – A detailed analysis by platform, age group, business model, category and geography
Competitive Landscape – 6 key vendors and 18 other prominent vendors

By Platform

App Store
Google Play
Others

By Age Group

24-44 Years
Above 44 Years
Below 24 Years

By Business Model

Freemium
Paid
Free
Paymium

By Category

Casual Games
Hardcore & Midcore Games
Social Casino Games

By Geography

APAC
- China
- Japan
- South Korea
- India
- Rest of APAC
North America
- US
- Canada
Europe
- Germany
- UK
- France
- Italy
- Rest of Europe
Latin America
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Rest of Latin America
Middle East & Africa
- Saudi Arabia
- Turkey
- UAE
- Rest of MEA

Mobile Gaming Market – Vendor Landscape

The rising competition is pressuring various vendors to continuously innovate their offerings with a unique value proposition to survive in the mobile gaming market. the governments of various countries are launching several policies to support the local mobile games market, which is expected to raise the competition in the market. Hence, vendors with strong research & development capabilities are likely to enjoy an advantage with respect to the development of sophisticated games, thereby allowing mobile game developers to enjoy a competitive edge over other game developers in the market. Moreover, companies with huge financial resources enjoying in developing more competitive games and expanding their reach through mergers & acquisition. Thereby, gaining competitive advantage over local players with less financial resources.

Key Vendors

Activision Blizzard
Electronic Arts
Take-Two Interactive
Tencent Holdings Ltd
Ubisoft
Zynga

Other Prominent Vendors

Behold Studios
CyberAgent
Hothead Games
IGG
Innersloth
Larva Game Studios
Lilith Games
NetEase Games
Netmarble
NEXON
Niantic
Onemt
Rovio Entertainment Corporation
Sea (Garena)
SEGA
SCOPELY
Zeptolab
37 Interactive Entertainment

Activision Blizzard

Playing to WIN: CEO’s of DraftKings, FansUnite, ESE and Activision Blizzard Embracing Trillion Dollar Millennials Demand for E-Sports & I-Gaming

Published

4 years ago

January 28, 2021

GamingAmericas.com

Wall Street Reporter, the trusted name in financial news since 1843, has published reports on the latest comments and insights from leaders at: DraftKings Inc., ESE Entertainment, FansUnite, and Activision Blizzard, Inc.

Millennials and GenZ now have $2.5 trillion in spending power, replacing Baby Boomers as the dominant consumer force. The global video gaming industry took in an estimated $180bn in 2020 – more than sports and movies worldwide. The new generation prefers interactive forms of entertainment such as video games and online betting on sports, and e-sports, and i-gaming. Wall Street Reporter highlights the latest comments from industry thought leaders:

DraftKings Inc., CEO Jason Robins: “E-Sports Betting Will Be One of Biggest Categories”

“…We significantly expanded our eSports offering and have seen exponential growth in this category. We added popular Madden simulated games and began to include streaming sports within our app, which has become a very popular feature. In fact, since the return of the NHL, the NBA, and Major League Baseball, users have continued to engage with eSports, which gives us confidence in that product’s future….We believe eSports is going to be a huge category – it’s when not if…we believe ultimately eSports betting will be if not the biggest, certainly one of the biggest categories of sports betting over the long-term.”

In their latest presentation at Wall Street Reporter’s NEXT SUPER STOCK livestream, FansUnite (OTC: FUNFF) (CSE: FANS) CEO Scott Burton, and President Darius Eghdami explained how FUNFF’s latest distribution deal with an online casino games aggregator, sets the stage for exponential revenue growth opportunities. In the next 12 months, FUNFF plans to expand its current line from three games to twelve – while adding multiple aggregators for each game – reaching millions of new online casino customers worldwide. With each game generating as much as $500,000 in revenue per month for FUNFF – per online casino – and the potential to be in hundreds of online casinos – these numbers can quickly add up.

January 11 – FUNFF closes an oversubscribed C$13.4 million private placement driven by strong investor demand. “The successful closing of this upsized financing provides further validation that the global gambling market is seeing a resurgence in demand from investors,” said Scott Burton, CEO of FansUnite. “Despite the headwinds caused by the global pandemic in 2020, we saw consumers adopt and embrace online betting for its ease of access and simplicity. With our seasoned team of gaming operators, global B2C brands, and our industry adopted B2B technology platform, we were able to execute on multiple milestones that delivered value to our customers and shareholders. As we now look to advance our operations globally, we believe this additional capital will allow us to explore strategic initiatives and execute on our vision of becoming a globally recognized iGaming leader.”

December 16 – FUNFF gains first-mover advantage into the U.S. esports betting market, as its long-term partner GameCo joins US Bookmaking and Sky Ute Casino to establish the first dedicated esports sportsbook in the United States. FUNFF wholly-owned subsidiary Askott Entertainment will supply its iGaming platform, Chameleon, as part of a fully integrated esports betting solution. Through GameCo’s partnership with Sky Ute Casino and US Bookmaking, FansUnite will be the first iGaming solutions provider to receive significant exposure in the U.S. esports betting market.

December 7 – FUNFF receives Malta Gaming Service License and Critical Gaming Supply, and will now be able to offer a full spectrum of online gambling services in Europe, covering Casino, Fixed Odds Betting, Pool Betting and Controlled Skilled Games. With MGA approval received, FansUnite will be joining other highly respected gambling companies such as PokerStars, Betfair and Unibet in operating their business within MGA regulations

ESE Entertainment CEO Konrad Wasiela: ”Building A Billion Dollar Global E-Sports Business”

ESE Entertainment CEO Konrad Wasiela, a featured presenter at Wall Street Reporter’s NEXT SUPER STOCK investors livestream conference, shares his vision for building ESE into the dominant player in the multi-billion dollar global E-Sports market. ESE is now rapidly expanding, with multiple revenue streams including, E-Sports infrastructure software powering global tournaments, exclusive digital media distribution, broadcast rights, and owning world-class leagues and teams, including its K1CK global E-Sports franchise.

January 29 – ESE is Presenting at Wall Street Reporter’s NEXT SUPER STOCK livestream. Click here to join: https://bit.ly/2PX0SpH

In his interview with Wall Street Reporter, ESE CEO Konrad Wasiela, says the company is now ready to scale – expanding its global footprint, with new partnerships with global brands like Porsche, driving revenue growth with aggressive focus on top line sales and margin expansion, and M&A opportunities.

January 8 – ESE announces Actina – a leading gaming hardware brand is sponsoring ESE’s K1CK esports team for the 2021 season. The League of Legends K1CK team Competes in Ultraliga, a Riot Games licensed league that is broadcasted on national TV in Poland on the Polsat Games Channel.

December 24 – ESE closes an oversubscribed private placement of C$3.6 million.

December 17 – ESE announces that Nuvei Corporation (NVEI) a leading global payment technology company will be the title sponsor for ESE’s K1CK e-sports team for all of its competitions for the 2021 season, across League of Legends, FIFA, Apex Legends and more.

January 29 – ESE is Presenting at Wall Street Reporter’s NEXT SUPER STOCK livestream. Click here to join: https://bit.ly/2PX0SpH

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick: “Billion Dollar Entertainment Franchises – With Momentum”

“…We now expect net bookings in 2020 to grow over 25% year-over-year with earnings per share growing even faster. Since refocusing our teams on our greatest opportunities, we’ve started to return to the execution excellence we’ve always been known for. We have significantly grown the number of creative and commercial employees working on our key franchises. …We’re in a position to deliver sustained and significant long-term expansion across our portfolio of fully owned franchises. As we execute against our content pipeline to extend our key franchises to mobile, introduce new free-to-play experiences and continue to optimize in-game operations we are positioned to continue converting our growing engagement into consistent and long-term revenue and earnings growth.”

“…Call of Duty is the first community to benefit from our pursuit of this franchise based strategy. With over 100 million monthly players, the Call of Duty community is larger than ever before. And with expansion across all platforms the franchise has transformed into a truly social experience that engages and connects our players in truly epic ways. By expanding to mobile, we’ve brought in tens of millions of new players in countries far beyond our traditional audiences. With the game now in final large-scale testing in China and over 50 million players already preregistered, we see a clear path to continue growing Call of Duty’s reach, engagement, and player investment on mobile in the largest mobile gaming market in the world.”

“…There are few entertainment franchises that generate over $1 billion in annual net bookings. And today we operate three of them: Call of Duty World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. And each has clear opportunity for sustained growth…For the balance of this year, we’re raising our outlook and we believe we will continue connecting and engaging more players than ever before in 2021.”