Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard is undoubtedly a huge operation. So much so that, as we could already imagine from its announcement, at the beginning of the year, there are quite a few traffic lights that still have to turn on their green lights so that the purchase can travel the long road that goes from the announcement of intentions to the final execution of the acquisition. A long path, and maybe a bit winding.
Thus, any progress in this regard is excellent news for the parties involved in the development of the proposal, that is, Microsoft and the board of directors of Activision Blizzard, with the more than controversial Bobby Kotick at the helm of it. And today is a very good day for these negotiators since, as we can read in Yahoo! Finance, Activision Blizzard shareholders have voted massively in favor of the purchase in the terms proposed by Microsoft, that is, for the offer of 68,700 million dollars.
Perhaps because they did not quite have faith in the response of the shareholders, heThe query raised by Activision Blizzard to its shareholders was not binding, so that the company reserved the right to act contrary to the one chosen by the shareholders. However, a confrontation of this type would not have been something easy for Kotick and his people, because in the end the shareholders could have used their power, thus compromising not only the operation, but also the executives responsible for it.
The war, however, will not break out, and the fact is that the final result of the vote has been overwhelming, with holders of 98% of Activision Blizzard shares voting in favor of the acquisition. Something that, furthermore, may affect its assessment by the regulators, who are currently analyzing the operation in detail, in order to decide whether its impact on the market is acceptable or, on the contrary, it may destabilize it, by bringing Microsoft closer to a monopoly position.
In this regard European, American, British, Chinese and other jurisdictions regulators still have to pronounce themselves, and they are expected to be quite strict in their assessment. A recent example is found in the failed acquisition offer with which NVIDIA wanted to take over ARM, which shows us that antitrust vigilance is gaining ground globally. And it is that Microsoft, with the purchase of Activision Blizzard, would strengthen its already very powerful position in the video game market, especially since the purchase of Zenimax.
