Maybe I’m just suffering from the post-halloween glut of sweets, but I can’t help but be shocked that Activision Blizzard just purchased King Digital Entertainment, the makers of Candy Crush, for a cool $5.9 billion. With a “b” for clarification. Also for clarification, Disney paid $4 billion for Star Wars, and Microsoft only paid $2.5 billion for Minecraft.
In their announcement, Activision noted that they are seeking to cement their standing as “the most profitable, successful standalone interactive entertainment company in the world. Given that just a few of their top games are World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Skylanders, Destiny, and Diablo (ignoring quite a few other major franchises), this seems to validate their claims of dominance. With the purchase of King, Activision seems to have a solid foothold in virtually every demographic and major genre, but time will tell if the acquisition will pay off. Chances are good, though, given that in the prior 12 months of fiscal reporting, King posted revenues of $2.1 billion dollars.
The leadership of King will be left largely intact, and they will continue to function relatively autonomously, with shareholders receiving fairly substantial payouts as a result of the purchase.
What are your thoughts on the acquisition?
Ritterific
I am slightly offended that Candy Crush is worth more than Star Wars. Last I checked, there are no lightsabers in Candy Crush, that’s gotta lower the value by at least 2 or 3 billion dollars. At least.