microsoft has made its largestever acquisition the company is buying call of duty maker activision blizzard for 687 billion it is also the largestever deal in the history of the gaming industry microsoft said that it expects the deal to close in 2023 fiscal year which starts in july the deal is bigger than microsofts 26 billion acquisition of linkedin the deal also breaks the record set by taketwo interactives acquisition of mobile game publisher zynga for more than 11 billion here are all key details about the dealits an all cash dealthe deal announced by microsoft is an allcash acquisition microsofts offer of 95 per share represents a premium of 45 to activisions friday close activisions shares were last up 27 at 8311what activision blizzard brings to the table for microsoftthe allcash 687 billion deal will turn microsoft the maker of the xbox gaming system into one of the worlds largest video game companies it will help the company compete with tech rivals such as meta formerly facebook in creating immersive virtual worlds for both work and play facebook is considered the leader in the socalled metaverse the name given to the virtual world activisions library of games may help offer microsofts xbox gaming platform an edge over sonys playstation which has for years enjoyed a more steady stream of exclusive games according to newzoo microsofts gaming market share was 65 in 2020 and adding activision may take it to 107the acquisition pushes microsoft past nintendo as the thirdlargest video game company by global revenue behind sony and chinese tech giant tencentmicrosoft said that the acquisitions will help it beef up its xbox game pass game subscriptionmicrosoft ceo satya nadella on acquisitiongaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms microsoft chief executive satya nadella said who will head the new divisionthe activision business unit would then report to phil spencer who has led microsofts xbox division and will now serve as ceo of microsoft gaming upon close we will offer as many activision blizzard games as we can within xbox game pass and pc game pass both new titles and games from activision blizzards incredible catalog says microsofts ceo of gaming phil spencermay lead to antitrust scrutiny similar to google and facebook for microsoftmicrosoft has so far managed to avoid the type of scrutiny faced by google and facebook however the deal would make it the worlds third largest gaming company this may put it under the radar of antitrust regulators in the us and europe however microsoft reportedly has agreed to pay a 3 billion breakfee if the deal falls through suggesting that it is confident of winning antitrust approvalwhat are the biggest hits of activision blizzardthe biggest games are call of duty and candy crushactivision blizzard has been facing allegations of sexual harassment of employeesthe company has been facing allegations of sexual harassment of employees and misconduct by several