Microsoft Has Officially Acquired Activision Blizzard

[Maniakkid25]

This is basically a dead topic, but I have to come in and say this because it needs to be said: there is a STORY, here! I want to be a fly on the wall of the meeting where the words "68.7 billion dollars" left someone's lips for the first time, and the absolute jaw-dropping shock the high execs had to this proposal. I want to see the legal team's face when this request passes through their hands, and they have to figure out if this is legal or not. There is a story here, and I want to know it!

[Moonface]

I expect the shock would've been a double hit, since being offered that sum while all the controversy is going on means someone is paying to take this entire shit show off your hands. The deal would be crazy for a company without problems to fix, but in this case it's a free pass to not even have to continue to care about the problems in the long-term. Whatever isn't fixed once this sale is over basically becomes Microsoft's problem and they paid for it to be their problem. Normally I only hear of that happening for companies that are facing bankruptcy like Toys-R-Us and such, but normally the company itself is looking for the out. This sounds like Activision just got a call from Microsoft offering to take this mess on in exchange for a big payout. I also wonder how many employees will stay on board and wait for the Microsoft takeover to happen when before they may have just decided to leave instead if this purchase never occurred.

[Maniakkid25]

Well, it looks like this topic isn't as dead as I thought. The FTC has announced that they are reviewing the situation. We'll see if that ends up actually mattering (my money is on "no")

[Moonface]

Yeah I'll be surprised if this stops the deal happening. As Polygon says other big acquisitions have happened but were under old rules and also weren't tech related so wouldn't have been under as much scrutiny as this deal could be, which I think is going to cause arguments about being biased towards certain sectors over others.

[ShiraNoMai]

That and I can't even remember the last time the FTC actually gave a shit over potential monopolies in this country. It's been quite some time. Acquisitions after acquisitions have been happening for the past decade or two and the list of big corps eating all the little guys grows by the day, while the FTC buries their heads in the sand at the thought of it.

[Moonface]

But did the FTC ever come out about looking into those other acquisitions that have happened?

[Moonface]

Though even if they do fire whats-his-face, I imagine they're going to give him a pretty huge payout to go quietly off into the sunset. They're going to give him a "golden parachute" as people like to say.

That looks to be exactly the case now. It sucks because if he gets fired, he gets a payout, and if he improves the company before he leaves he also gets a payout. Even if there were no payouts though, his stocks have gone up in value so much due to the Microsoft acquisition that there's no way he doesn't ride off into the sunset with a huge sum of money regardless of what happens.

[ShiraNoMai]

I hope the employees can file a class action lawsuit against the guy and sue him for all he's worth. Piece of shit.

[Karo]

I'm not mad I'm just disappointed, but I mean that the way things go for the rich I guess. Jailtime, fines, and prisons really are for the poor while the rich they don't really get consequences. Sure they'll have to pay a fine, but a fine really means nothing to them!

[Moonface]

I'm not mad I'm just disappointed, but I mean that the way things go for the rich I guess. Jailtime, fines, and prisons really are for the poor while the rich they don't really get consequences. Sure they'll have to pay a fine, but a fine really means nothing to them!

I forget what country it is but I know somewhere in the world makes it that fines are a percentage of your income, rather than a set rate, so that rich people can't just view the fine as a mild inconvenience compared to a regular person who doesn't just have a few hundred dollars (or whatever currency) to just blow on a ticket or fine.

[Dragon Lord]

Though even if they do fire whats-his-face, I imagine they're going to give him a pretty huge payout to go quietly off into the sunset. They're going to give him a "golden parachute" as people like to say.

That looks to be exactly the case now. It sucks because if he gets fired, he gets a payout, and if he improves the company before he leaves he also gets a payout. Even if there were no payouts though, his stocks have gone up in value so much due to the Microsoft acquisition that there's no way he doesn't ride off into the sunset with a huge sum of money regardless of what happens.

Yep. There was never going to be any other ending for him except for riding off into the sunset with saddlebags stuffed full of cash.

[Moonface]

I wonder if anyone will try to sue him personally or not after he leaves given the amount of cash he'll have. I'm not sure if he could be personally held accountable for the entire company but maybe if he leaves without having improved anything it can be used as evidence that he didn't foster a safe work environment. Then again even if he does turn it around it should still be used to prove it wasn't safe before and that it was clearly his lack of action that fed it.

[Moonface]

I was going to remark on the vote but that PR statement just grabbed my eye way more. What an absolute crock of shit that statement is. Everyone knows they voted on it because of the stupid amount of money they're all going to get out of this deal going through.
I could be really cynical and take it to mean they couldn't make a decent workplace by themselves if another company wasn't buying them out, but I don't really care anymore what it takes to stop the problems in Activision. They could sacrifice a goat on their office steps at this point if that was what was required.

[Maniakkid25]

They could sacrifice a goat on their office steps at this point if that was what was required.

That's basically what they are doing, lol. They basically just said "Oh, it's not OUR fault that the workplace culture was terrible! It was those dumb board members that this deal is kicking out! (Even though we always had the power to kick them out whenever we wanted; we just liked the money they were making us too much to do it)"

[Moonface]

They could sacrifice a goat on their office steps at this point if that was what was required.

That's basically what they are doing, lol. They basically just said "Oh, it's not OUR fault that the workplace culture was terrible! It was those dumb board members that this deal is kicking out! (Even though we always had the power to kick them out whenever we wanted; we just liked the money they were making us too much to do it)"

Yup. Same for why Kotick isn't going to worry about the board kicking him out. As awful as he is, he's made that company stupid bank and so long as he remains that golden goose, he knows he's good.