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Microsoft negotiations started just days after Activision Blizzard expose

Microsoft negotiations started just days after Activision Blizzard expose

Tech and games giant Microsoft reached out to Activision Blizzard just three days after a damning expose into the company.

As reported by CNBC, the Big M started speaking to Activision Blizzard on February 19th, just days after a Washington Post report alleging that CEO Robert Kotick knew about sexual misconduct at the company.

An SEC filing has detailed that Xbox boss Phil Spencer reached out to Kotick on that day – after saying that the company was "reevaluating" its relationship with Activision Blizzard – to discuss "strategic opportunities"; shortly afterwards Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was brought into discussions. The following day, Nadella said that he wanted Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard.

It also appears that part of the haste surrounding this deal was down to a number of other players looking to buy Activision Blizzard. None of these are named, but one outfit was looking to buy just Blizzard.

Microsoft announced in January that it intended to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. This came after several damning reports into the company's working culture.

The FTC is looking into the deal


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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Forbes-Calvin is a freelance writer and photographer, mostly operating within the games industry. Over his career, he has written for the likes of MCV, Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, The Observer, VGC and Esquire. That's on top of writing books for Dark Horse on RuneScape, Assassin's Creed, Dead Island 2 and more.