If the transaction is confirmed, it will be the largest acquisition in the sector, far ahead of the takeover of Zynga by Take-Two for $12.7 billion announced last week.

It would be the largest takeover ever by the Redmond (Washington) IT group, well ahead of LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion.

"The acquisition of Activision will help kick-start Microsoft's broader ambitions in video games and its migration to the metaverse, with video games being, in our view, the first area of ​​monetization of the metaverse", notes Dan Ives of Wedbush. .

A parallel universe accessible via virtual reality and augmented reality, the metaverse is described as the future of the internet by tech giants, starting with Facebook.

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella also mentioned during the takeover announcement that video games would play "a decisive role" in the development of the metaverse.

Ambitions in the cloud

By absorbing Activision, Microsoft would become the third largest player in the video game industry in terms of turnover behind Chinese Tencent and Japanese Sony, maker of the PlayStation.

The group, which has marketed Xbox consoles for 20 years and has numerous development studios, was already a heavyweight in the market.

In all, its worldwide revenues in 2020 were estimated at $173.7 billion.

Among his recent feats of arms, he offered himself ZeniMax Media in September 2020 for 7.5 billion dollars, behind franchises like "Elder Scrolls", "Fallout" or "Wolfenstein".

In 2014, he bought the Swedish studio Mojang, creator of "Minecraft", for $2.5 billion.

It is especially in video games on the "cloud" (remote computing) that Microsoft has huge ambitions.

The company announced on Tuesday that its Xbox Game Pass monthly subscription service, providing access to a vast library of titles from its console, had passed the 25 million user mark.

"Xbox wants to reach three billion players worldwide," said Daniel Ahmad, video game analyst for Niko Partners, on Twitter.

"They will achieve this through a strategy of developing both HD games via the cloud and mobile games available on different media."

Activision in turmoil

Experience, know-how and the many blockbusters of Activision will be major assets for Microsoft.

"Activision Blizzard's intellectual property is some of the most valuable in the world thanks to +Call of Duty+ and multiple other games that have extremely loyal customers," said Sophie Lund-Yates, analyst for fund manager Hargreaves Lansdown. .

For Activision, the takeover is a potential boon as the California company faces a wave of sexual harassment and discrimination charges.

On Monday, the group confirmed to AFP that it had fired 37 employees and taken disciplinary action against 44 others since July after receiving complaints of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is the subject of a petition, signed by nearly 20% of some 9,500 employees and demanding his departure, for having sought to stifle several cases, including accusations of rape.

In Tuesday's statement, however, Microsoft said Mr. Kotick would retain his position as head of the company.

The acquisition, which will take the form of a cash buyback of Activision shares at a price of $95 per share, is expected to close during fiscal year 2023, or between July 2022 and June 2023.

On Wall Street, the title of Activision climbed 28%, to 83.52 dollars around 4:10 p.m. GMT.

He had been suspended shortly before the opening of the session after having soared by more than 37%.

© 2022 AFP