It is no secret that Activision is a titan in the video game industry. Their yearly Call of Duty franchise is so wildly successful that my mom knows what it is, and her gaming knowledge doesn't spread much further than online backgammon on her computer. So when they wanted to start making a real dent in the mobile gaming market, they decide why not just buy up King Games, the creators of Candy Crush, Bubble Witch, and Farm Heroes. (Just to name a few of their most successful titles. None of them grossing under $500 Million a year.) The asking price? $5.9 Billion... That's billion with a "B"! Holy diabetes, Batman! That's a lot of simoleons to drop on digital candy!
That kind of money is just so hard for me to wrap my head around. I'm a pretty humble dude with a pretty simple way of life. Anything over $1 Million seems mystical and absolutely unobtainable to me. But for a company like Activision, it's a deal that just makes sense. With their ownership in Blizzard, another huge name in gaming, they have become one of the most influential empires in every facet of the industry. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had this to say about the deal:
The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment. With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before.
