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Proposed Acquisition Of Activision Blizzard By Microsoft
On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The acquisition was completed on October 13, 2023, with its total cost amounting to $75.4 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft brought Activision Blizzard under its Microsoft Gaming business unit as a sibling division to Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media. With it, Microsoft gained ownership of several franchises under Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and King, including ''Call of Duty'', ''Crash Bandicoot'', ''Spyro'', ''Warcraft'', ''StarCraft'', '' Diablo'', ''Overwatch'', and '' Candy Crush''. As of 2023, the acquisition is the largest video game acquisition by transaction value in history. Following shareholder approval of the acquisition, the merger was reviewed by several national anti-trust bodies, with early approvals granted by the European Commission and China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), among others. The United State ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The early 1980s and home computers, rise of personal computers through software like Windows, and the company has since expanded to Internet services, cloud computing, video gaming and other fields. Microsoft is the List of the largest software companies, largest software maker, one of the Trillion-dollar company, most valuable public U.S. companies, and one of the List of most valuable brands, most valuable brands globally. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Windows. During the 41 years from 1980 to 2021 Microsoft released 9 versions of MS-DOS with a median frequen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
State Administration For Market Regulation
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR; ) is a ministerial-level agency directly under the State Council of the People's Republic of China responsible for market supervision and management. SAMR was established in 2018. It is China's primary antitrust regulator. History The Administration was created as part of the deepening the reform of the Party and state institutions, and merged or abolished a number of previous agencies, such as the State Intellectual Property Office. SAMR was created under the banner of the Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission under Xi Jinping, current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. The Administration consolidates in one ministry the market regulation functions previously shared by three separate agencies, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC). In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a Division (business), division of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its first 15 years, it was a video game developer and self-published its titles. In 2001, Bethesda spun off its in-house development team into Bethesda Game Studios, leaving Bethesda Softworks to focus on publishing operations. In March 2021, Microsoft acquired Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media, maintaining that the company will continue to operate as a separate business. Part of the Microsoft Gaming division, Bethesda Softworks retains its function as the publisher of games developed by the different studios under ZeniMax Media. History 1980s Before founding Bethesda Softworks, Christopher Weaver was a technology forecaster and a communications engineer in the television and cable industries. After finishing Pos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Candy Crush Saga
''Candy Crush Saga'' is a free-to-play tile-matching video game released by King on April 12, 2012, originally for Facebook; other versions for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game ''Candy Crush''. In the game, players complete levels by swapping colored pieces of candy on a game board to make a match of three or more of the same color, eliminating those candies from the board and replacing them with new ones, which could potentially create further matches. Matches of four or more candies create unique candies that act as power-ups with larger board-clearing abilities. Boards have various goals that must be completed within a fixed number of moves, such as collecting a specific number of a type of candy. The game uses a freemium model; while it can be played completely through without spending money, players can buy special actions to help clear more difficult boards, from which King makes its revenues—at its peak, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Fortune (magazine)
''Fortune'' (stylized in all caps) is an American global business magazine headquartered in New York City. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, a global business media company. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The magazine competes with ''Forbes'' and '' Bloomberg Businessweek'' in the national business magazine category and distinguishes itself with long, in-depth feature articles. The magazine regularly publishes ranked lists including ranking companies by revenue such as in the ''Fortune'' 500 that it has published annually since 1955, and in the ''Fortune'' Global 500. The magazine is also known for its annual ''Fortune Investor's Guide''. History ''Fortune'' was founded by ''Time'' magazine co-founder Henry Luce in 1929, who declared it as "the Ideal Super-Class Magazine", a "distinguished and de luxe" publication "vividly portraying, interpreting and recording the Industrial Civilization". Briton Hadden, Luce's business partner, was no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Activision Blizzard Studios
Activision Blizzard Studios, LLC was a motion picture production company and a subsidiary of American video game company Activision Blizzard based in Beverly Hills, California. It was created to utilize its parent company's popular game franchises through films and television shows. It was co-headed by Stacey Sher and Nick van Dyk, the latter being a former executive of The Walt Disney Company. In 2021, the two co-presidents of Activision Blizzard Studios departed to explore other opportunities, and given the lack of production since 2018, it is likely that the studio has ceased operations. History At an investor day presentation on November 6, 2015, in the wake of the ''Warcraft'' feature film, Activision Blizzard announced the formation of Activision Blizzard Studios, a film production subsidiary dedicated to creating original television series and films based on their video game franchises. In January 2016, the company announced that the studio will be co-headed by produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Major League Gaming
Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) was a professional esports organization based in New York City. Founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso, MLG held official video game tournaments throughout the United States and Canada. The ''Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit'' was a television broadcast of ''Halo 2'' MLG tournaments in 2006 and 2007, ESPN.com, and other broadband sites. The company has also been involved in television production, and game development. MLG's aim was to elevate computer and console game tournaments to viable competitive and spectator events. In January 2016, video game publisher Activision Blizzard announced its acquisition of Major League Gaming. The company, whose own esports division is led by MLG co-founder Mike Sepso, stated that it intended to leverage the purchase as part of its plans to build an esports-focused television network. The organization experienced a loss of profit, leading its parent company, Activision Blizzard, to close its last br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Activision Publishing
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016. The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979, in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The video game crash of 1983, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the experience of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition of Infocom. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Video Game Publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer (the publisher calls this ''external development'') and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a ''studio''. The large video game publishers also distribute the games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies (or larger video game publishers) to distribute the games they publish. Other functions usually performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any licenses that are used by the game; paying for localization; layout, printing, and possibly the writing of the user manual; and the creation of graphic design elements such as the box design. Some large publishers with vertical structure also own publishing subsidiaries (labels). Large publishers also attempt to boos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', '' Driver'', '' Far Cry'', '' Just Dance'', '' Prince of Persia'', '' Rabbids'', '' Rayman'', '' Tom Clancy's'', and '' Watch Dogs''. Ubisoft first achieved commercial and critical success with their 1995 platform game Rayman. In 1996, the company began to expand to other parts of the world, opening studios in Annecy, Shanghai, Montreal and Milan. In recent years, Ubisoft has struggled financially, with a strong decline in revenue in 2024, and laying off 185 employees in 2025. History Origins and first decade (1986–1996) By the 1980s, the Guillemot family had established itself as a support business for farmers in the Brittany province of France and other regions, including into the United Kingdom. The five sons of the family – C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Cloud Gaming
Cloud gaming, sometimes called gaming on demand or game streaming, is a type of Online game, online gaming that runs video games on remote Server (computing), servers and Streaming media, streams the game's output (video, sound, etc.) directly to a user's device, or more colloquially, playing a game remotely from a Cloud computing, cloud. It contrasts with traditional means of gaming, wherein a game is run locally on a user's video game console, personal computer, or mobile device. Background Cloud gaming platforms operate in a similar manner to Remote desktop software, remote desktops and Photo on demand services; games are stored and executed remotely on a provider's dedicated hardware, and Streaming media, streamed as video to a player's device via client software. The client software handles the player's inputs, which are sent back to the server and executed in-game. Some cloud gaming services are based on access to a Desktop virtualization, virtualized Microsoft Windows, Wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox network and Xbox Game Pass. The brand is produced by Microsoft Gaming, a division of Microsoft. The brand was 2001 in video gaming#Video game consoles, first introduced in the United States in November 2001, with the launch of the original Xbox console. The Xbox branding was formerly, from 2012 to 2015, used as Microsoft's digital media entertainment brand replacing Zune. In 2022, Microsoft expanded its gaming business and reorganized Xbox to become part of its newly formed Microsoft Gaming division. Under Microsoft Gaming, Xbox's first-party publishers are Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media (Bethesda Softworks), and Activision Blizzard (Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and King (company), King), who own numerous studios and successful franchis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
