Activision Buy’s ‘King’ for $5.9 Billion

EA has GOT to be shaking in their boots. In an incredible move, Activision-Blizzard has just made the biggest purchase in the video game industry ever. Acquiring the studio behind such mobile giants as Candy Crush and Soda Saga, for a STAGGERING $5.9 Billion dollars. Let me put that into perspective for you. When Mojang was acquired by Microsoft, they spent $2.5 Billion. When Disney bought LucasArts they spent $4 Billion.

Announced late last night in a financial statement to investors, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had this to say:

We continue to benefit from our focus on creating the world’s best interactive entertainment. Our incredibly talented employees around the world once again delivered great content and strong financial results. Mobile gaming is the largest and fastest-growing opportunity for interactive entertainment and we will have one of the world’s most successful mobile game companies and its talented teams providing great content to new customers, in new geographies throughout the world. King has a truly fantastic management team and over 1,600 incredibly talented employees and we are excited to welcome them into the Activision Blizzard family.

This move was obviously and attempt to solidify a larger foothold in the gaming world. With more and more companies entering the Free-To-Play/Pay-To-Win mobile markets, such as Nintendo, it’s obvious Activision wanted to get a leg up on the competition and start raking in that sweet sweet cash. Add the $5.6 billion to their current market value of $26.11 Billion, and you have a serious company on your hands. The acquisition is estimated to be complete come Spring 2016.

Their nearest competitor, EA Games, has a current market value of $22.41 Billion. You know Andrew Wilson is worried.