Displaying items by tag: Acquisitions

Remember how the EU regulators said the Microsoft Activision deal was pro competition and pro-consumer? Well, I wonder what they might be thinking now as news is dropping saying that both Microsoft and Activision are considering pulling games out of the UK in order to push the buyout through. The deal all on its own is far from pro-competition and standing on licensing agreements that affect 1% of the market defied logic, but now we see the lengths that Microsoft is willing to go to in order to get their way.

In September 2020 Nvidia announced that it was in talks to acquire ARM Holdings from SoftBank Group Corp. The deal was not surprising, but it did send waves through the industry. The concerns around this deal were and are the same as the ones currently surrounding the Microsoft-Activision deal. Given the level of competition in the industry, would Nvidia use its new purchase to create roadblocks for their competition? Nvidia has always maintained that they would never do anything like this, but their assurances were never enough to get past regulators.

The long rumored acquisition of game-streaming service Twitch by Ad-Giant Google has finally been confirmed, in what is looking to be a $1Billion deal. The original rumor surfaced back in May of this year when an article appeared in Variety. There were rumors that Microsoft and even Facebook were also looking into a purchase.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp, which was announced in February. Before finalizing the transaction, companies will have to wait for approvals from other international regulators in countries where both companies operate. However, the FTC's approval did not come without warning and instructions related to the issue that stood out as the most contentious - the protection of user data.

Although Tumblr is often derisively described as a heaven for hipsters and misunderstood teenagers, it does not change the fact that it is one of the largest blog services that exist. Tumblr now has over a hundred million blogs, hence rumors that Yahoo wants to buy it for a billion dollars does not really sound surprising.