Xbox's acquisition of Bethesda, although a gaming business move was maybe part of a company wide policy by all sectors to look at buying assets to add company value - maybe to offset any move in global markets and accusations of Microsoft being overvalued and then seeing value lost in share price.
IMHO buying companies like Bethesda at this point in time, before UE5 is even publicly available is a terrible time to buy - unless you've got a Xss type device in the market where last-gen looking games isn't going to hurt game sales; especially if you don't sell the games to GP subscribers. But for everyone else in the bleeding-edge next-gen graphics category I would want to see what they produce following UE5 release, when a new benchmark for fidelity and AAA polish is established - because what are these companies worth if they can't transition to the next-gen tier of user expectation?
If you just wanted the IPs, then it would surely be better to wait, as the chances of paying a lot less are more favourable - in the current climate - than the risk of paying a bit more IMO. obviously, Bethesda are a good fit for Xbox because if Microsoft leave them as is - and just fix their vile anti-gamer T&Cs in games to look like a Xbox user agreement - they'd provide a decent amount of AA games optimised for XsX - that fit the xbox hardcore demographic - and give an instant launch year slate of games.
I guess the real issue is how much extra money was factored in to get key staff(everyone in a game dev) to commit to their companies for another two years? Game development is filled with brilliant people, and I suspect if a bonus of half a year's salary hasn't been offered to all the top staff, then lots of them will resent the suits at the top getting such an obscene windfall and be looking to setup as independents or go elsewhere - at a time when demand for talent is probably high.