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Mergers and Acquisitions |OT| Thread Merged

Acquisitions and mergers official topic

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kingfey

Banned
MS even adding ABK is not the market leader of gaming. Isn't the market leader in console gaming. Isn't the market leader in mobile gaming. Isn't the market leader in PC gaming. Isn't the market leader in VR gaming. Isn't the market leader in game subscriptions. There is no monopoly and competition harmed at all, they shouldn't have any issue with regulators.


Not true, MS never said that they want to keep it "until 2023". Spencer said they want to keep CoD on PS. In the SEC filing they said that want to keep supporting these communities where they are, mentioning previous Bethesda and Mojang acquisitions (where they kept releasing all the post acquisition games, updates and dlcs on PS and none of them has been Xbox exclusive) and particularly mentioning Minecraft (all its post acquisition console games, dlc and updates are on PS and Switch many years after the acquisition) as example of it in the SEC filling when explaining their plans to investors and regulators.


Nvidia buying ARM would mean monopoly, a distant market leader on their area.

MS even with ABK instead isn't a market leader in gaming at all. Not even specifically in consoles gaming, pc gaming, mobile gaming or game subscriptions. So there's no monopoly at all.
Ms won't be in monopoly, even if they buy take2, ubisoft and EA.

They need to have 50% of console market, to be considered a monopoly.

As long as Nintendo and Sony exist and have huge chunk of market.
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
you dont do a defensive action by spending 4 billion to acquire a game studio in few weeks.....
Well if Ricardo Tubby himself, Jeff Grubb is to be believed (never believe a word he says when Sony are involved) there was a bidding war, so MS lost a bidding war to Sony. 🤷‍♂️

Sony spent 5/6 months reaching a deal on this and it appears that MS only enquired on Activision about a month or so before announcement. When MS bought Activision they knew Sony had Bungie. So which purchase was the reactive one?
 

MonarchJT

Banned
What's next? You're going to say they have RTS games even though the genre is practically dead?

We were talking about Destiny and you're just decided to go into a different direction because I said Destiny is currently being played more than Halo.


Just give it up, dude. lol
I said that Halo is famous for different reasons than Destiny. im sure that also if is more played (as gaas) if you ask to the Xbox community what game they prefer they would say Halo everyday if the week. That said i don't think that Bungie are a good deal at 3.6b but i understand bwhy Sony had to spend it
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
That one i could see. Or even nintendo buying square. Pretty sure they sell better on switch no?
And you want capcom or square games on their shitty hardware??

Mh rise was enough dude, nintendo can buy another company who stopped progressing graphic in 2005 or so, but not the big ones who also care about the eye candy, at least i hope.
 
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DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
I said that Halo is famous for different reasons than Destiny. im sure that also if is more played (as gaas) if you ask to the Xbox community what game they prefer they would say Halo everyday if the week. That said i don't think that Bungie are a good deal at 3.6b but i understand bwhy Sony had to spend it
No, you just started mentioning things that had nothing to do with Halo vs Destiny. It just looked like a desperate attempt to bring in other games into the conversation.
 

Kerotan

Member
It's 100% a defensive move. Microsoft would have been trying to buy them and this ensures their greedy paws are kept off this and destiny 3 or whatever future ip they make is safe on playstation.
 
Just another journalism clown who is once again trying to capitalise on the current acquisition news situation in order to get more clicks and attention. Grubb & Corden have proven they know jack shit about what's going on, much like the Zenimax, ActiBlizz, Bungie acquisitions they knew nothing about and attempted to damage control to cover their tracks and their "reputation". They know absolutely nothing, much like every pretend "leakster" clown out there, who tries to get in on the fun for attention and coverage. Nothing to see here really, just purposeful vagueness. It's the only way for those dudes to get attention anyways.
 
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MonarchJT

Banned
Well if Ricardo Tubby himself, Jeff Grubb is to be believed (never believe a word he says when Sony are involved) there was a bidding war, so MS lost a bidding war to Sony. 🤷‍♂️

Sony spent 5/6 months reaching a deal on this and it appears that MS only enquired on Activision about a month or so before announcement. When MS bought Activision they knew Sony had Bungie. So which purchase was the reactive one?
It's different Ms didn't want pay that amount of money because they probably didn't think Destiny or Bungie as dev were not worth that money especially because it was clear from the start that they wanted to remain independent and multi-platform. Right after that they spent x20 times for the biggest third party publisher who had the most famous fps out there
 
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MrTentakel

Member
Corporations are not like 12 year old gamers with an urgent need to spend their weekly allowance on random shit.
Merger decisions are strategic, well planned and have to deliver a long term ROI to the shareholders.
Neither Microsoft nor Sony are impulse shopping or have money lying around to spend on whatever management desires.
It´s a fucking business you muppets.
 

ManaByte

Banned
Sony spent the latter half of the PS3 generation building up their studios to produce single-player games along the mold of Uncharted while GAAS titles like Fortnite and Destiny became the big moneymakers in the industry. With PlayStation Studios setup in the SP direction, Sony didn’t have time to organically create a GAAS developer, so they went after Bungie because they were already successful in that genre.
 
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MonarchJT

Banned
No, you just started mentioning things that had nothing to do with Halo vs Destiny. It just looked like a desperate attempt to bring in other games into the conversation.
So you thinking that Sony bought Destinybecause it beat Halo and after 20 years finally have an halo killer?????? Clearly we have to take everything into consideration lol Ms is not longer chained to halo forza gear
 
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DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
So you thinking that Sony bought Destinybecause it beat Halo and after 20 years finally have an halo killer?????? Clearly we have to take everything into consideration lol Ms is not longer chained to halo forza gear

No, you're just getting desperate because you didn't like what I said about Halo.

I just pointed out that Destiny 2 is currently the more popular game. It's a fact, take it or leave it. This has nothing to do with being a Halo killer. Mentioning other games doesn't add or support your argument as to what was said. It's like you want to somehow "win" something by bringing other games into the conversation.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
It won’t fall through even though 70B is more money than MS has made from Xbox in its entire existence, but there might be grounds to force MS to guarantee they won’t force certain games out of their rivals platforms which is interesting if we look at Bungie - Sony.
 
you dont do a defensive action by spending 4 billion to acquire a game studio in few weeks.....
Yeah it’s more likely a reaction to the Bethesda deal which happened about a year ago instead and Phil Spencer saying they weren’t done yet, a couple months of deciding who to go for and here we are.

That said, Xbox was apparently only in talks with Activision from November and they spent 70 billion on them which would literally only be about 8-12 weeks to spend that kind of money on a full publisher with multiple studios and IP.

Not sure where the “it takes months and years not weeks” come from considering none of you are in a position nor have the knowledge to make such claims.
 

DavJay

Member
MS spends 70 billion to get the biggest 3rd party publisher Sony show power by getting a single developer for 3.6 billion? I don’t know but seems like a desperation move to get something. Bungie price is way too high.
 

Midn1ght

Member
And I bet most developers would prefer to work for locked hardware anyway
Developers across the PlayStation Studios network pushed repeatedly for Sony to bring their games to PC

Cory Barlog: “I think it was the collective of studios all over saying this is a really good idea. We should be looking into this,” he replied. “Eventually, I think it reached that tipping point. When we had sent so many suggestion box suggestions that they were like, ‘I’m tired of hearing all this. Fine, we’ll do this.’

I don't understand why everyone and their mother suddenly push themselves on the pc.
I just have a hard time understanding how it happens.
Congrats on the transition by the way, a few more months on the blue pill and you'll be a beautiful, strong and independent pony. <3

Joke aside, I get what you're saying but with consoles being hard to find (not impossible), kids being at home with PC to study and Twitch/Youtube celebs being mostly on PC, it's easy to see why the platform is growing. Also, just guessing here, but to me the meat of the matter is Asia where PC gaming is probably growing like never before.

Pc gaming is not doomed but them acquiring those studios may actually be negative for pc players in a way.

I think OP should stop drugs but I agree. From Microsoft never giving DLSS option to Sony locking games on consoles for years, shit could be bad for PC owners. It could also be the opposite and see Sony releasing their games quicker on the platform. Let's wait and see. Either way PC is fine if we ignore the current insane prices to enter the hobby.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
No, you're just getting desperate because you didn't like what I said about Halo.

I just pointed out that Destiny 2 is currently the more popular game. It's a fact, take it or leave it. This has nothing to do with being a Halo killer. Mentioning other games doesn't add or support your argument as to what was said. It's like you want to somehow "win" something by bringing other games into the conversation.
Ok let's say is famous than Halo and? What changes for Microsoft?
 
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Thirty7ven

Banned
Funny thing is that Sony's acquisition of Bungie will probably help Microsoft in this case

Only in your mind.

Could PlayStation the company buy Bungie? Yes.

Could Xbox the company buy Activision Blizzard? ahahahahhahahhahahahahahhahahahahhahahahhahahahahhahahahaha

Some of you should read things. This isn’t about preventing monopolies, it’s about the “financial doping” going on by big tech which is anti competitive in nature.
 
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Leyasu

Banned
MS spent $75b buying 2 pc stores. Now Sony spent $3b on bungie, and will buy big publishers in the future.

Valve owns steam, which has big pc market share. It's value is between $4b-$10b.

If anyone of these 2 companies buy valve, we pc community are screwed.

Future now is bleak.
A steam competitor or its outright purchase IS the endgame for either or both.

Make no mistake, once Microsoft or Sony or whoever feels that they have enough content gets their first, will pivot towards steam or try to build a competitor.

This hardware less future that gets spoken about on here, only happens when one or both has a massive pc storefront.
 
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Roxkis_ii

Member
I don't think Sony is trying to go blow to blow with Microsoft with buy studios. Think their just trying to fill a hole in their line up, just in case MS does take COD.

Side note: When did buying studios become the bar to being successful console maker. What happened caring about the actual games??
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
It's different Ms didn't want pay that amount of money because they probably didn't think Destiny or Bungie as dev were not worth that money especially because it was clear from the start that they wanted to remain independent and multi-platform. Right after that they spent x20 times for the biggest third party publisher who had the most famous fps out there
The classic defence:
Friday Movie GIF


Who gives a shit. I don't like online FPS but I'm happy Sony are fixing their problems with this as they will keep wasting money until they get their online success. Hopefully they can then use the money on creating more games I like such as GOW, Horizon, GoT and so on.
 
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Mass Shift

Member
Routine examination of the details of a multi billion dollar acquisition. Happens all the time.

Deal will still go through, probably without any major concessions as well if MS makes mention of cleaning up the Activision work environment.
 

Papacheeks

Banned
This time I think it's Tencent.

Who would they buy though? Lots of red tape and laws for Japanese companies to be protected. From Software is the one I would think could be bought by Tenecent, possibly Namco/Bandai since they have ties to some Chinese companies that are holdings for developers like From Software.
 

darrylgorn

Member
...because of upkeep. PC's have problems incredibly more often compared to a console. Most people who buy consoles don't know anything about computers so the idea of them doing that sort of thing is unrealistic. Duh.

I've been playing on PC for decades and haven't entered the BIOS once.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Also, Sony as a corporation is slightly smaller than MS. Where did the talk of “Nadella’s infinite pockets compared to Sony” go? We cannot celebrate MS being a behemoth and how they can use the Azure money to buy their way into the industry (FTC statement was “biggest technology companies, […] able to leverage their dominance in one line of business to gain power in other markets”) compared to Sony and also ask FTC to treat the two companies the same.

People trying to equate the two are crazy. MS has done a great marketing job, but they are the OG Silicon Valley super villain, and their lobbying power is insane. People who actually celebrate MS (not Xbox, which is absolutely fine) are insane.

 
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Orbital2060

Member
There are 10.000 work places at stake here, too. Which might a be factor in the consideration by the government. I dont think anyone else could take over stewardship of the whole organisation like this, other than then a handful of the big tech companies out there. If the deal does not go through, it wont so much be a loss for Microsoft - they can just carry on. But the situation for the people working at ActiBlizz will be back to scratch, or the rut they find themselves in now - with the company being sold in parts. A studio going here, another studio going there.. all broken up. With possibly a lot of redundancies made in that process.
 

Kerotan

Member
It's a obvious this is a defensive move. When MS were buying up studios left and right including studios that worked very closely with playstation sony went and secured insomniac amongst other studios. This wasn't normal for sony and without the threat of MS they would have happily left them all be.

The Zenimax sale would have rattled them and as a result sony would have been thinking bungie and maybe 1 or two others. After the Activision deal do they now go after T2, Ubi, Capcom etc?
 

k_trout

Member
as I play with my crystal balls I see a valve and Nintendo merger, fire and brimston, dogs and cats living together
 

Graciaus

Member
Microsoft's attempt to expand to PC gaming failed first with GFWL then later the actual Windows store. People hated the first and just ignored the second. They struck big when they put games on Steam.

Regardless of what big moves you do if your consumers don't want it it doesn't matter. Just ask Epic.

PC will be fine. I doubt as long as Gaben is alive the company is sold.
 
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THE:MILKMAN

Member
I would assume for such a huge potential purchase MS would've run this by the FTC for any issues before announcing it? Seems common sense to me unless it isn't allowed?
 

Kerotan

Member
Do you think they put this together in a week? It is irrelevant compared to the AB acquisition. Its 1/20th the size.
It's in response to Zenimax. Just how buying insomniac was a response to MS shopping spree of independent devs some of which were working on playstation exclusives. The Activision deal with push Sony to go for more and even bigger acquisitions in future. It's do or die at this point.
 

Kerotan

Member
These "leakers" are fucking hacks. If they knew anything or had relevant sources we would have heard about Acti/Blizz and Bungie acquisitions well before they happened.

I wish Jeff Grub and Tom Henderson threads were banned tbh.
Same here. They just screem of attention for self promotion.
 

Kerotan

Member
Which they can't pay, maybe a merger would make more sense
EA is such a bad purchase. For that price they could get Ubi, Take 2, Capcom and still have change left over. And those 3 would buy them real leverage over MS with their exclusive Bethesda bullshit and inevitable future attempts to make cod exclusive.
 
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