A new report claims that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick tried selling the company to Facebook before accepting an offer from Microsoft. This reportedly came after the fallout of last year’s sexual harassment and abuse allegations. Among other things, the report also reveals that Microsoft had eyes on the controversial video game giant as far back as 2020.
How Activision Blizzard was nearly bought by Facebook
While Microsoft had approached Activision Blizzard on the topic of acquisitions back in 2020, Kotick was not interested. Then, in November 2021 the Wall Street Journal released a bombshell report that claimed Bobby Kotick had known about numerous cases of sexual harassment and workplace abuse at the company. This resulted in Activision Blizzard’s stock dropping by 15%. Bloomberg reports that these events had prompted Xbox Head Phil Spencer to approach Kotick once more with an offer to acquire the company.
However, Kotick still showed hesitation towards the offer and looked to other potential suitors. Kotick went to Meta Platforms — the parent company of social media giant Facebook — and one other big corporation, but both deals fell through. Eventually, Kotick came back to Spencer to talk about a potential takeover. Both companies worked through the holidays to solidify the deal that would turn Microsoft into an even larger gaming entity.
The silver lining? Bobby Kotick may no longer be part of the company after Spencer takes over. But even then, we’d have to deal with one of the largest monopolies in the history of video games.
In other news, a Battlefield 2042 dev has admitted that DICE has been taking “too long” to fix some of the game’s major issues. The co-founder of Reddit has also predicted that most games will be play-to-earn by 2027.
