As the Microsoft Responsible for January 2022 surprisingly announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard announced , was immediately clear to many: The Bobby Kotick-led company is ultimately stumbled over the large sexism scandal of 2021 . Too clearly, the Activision shares had slipped into the basement. Too very stood the mighty CEO in the flakfire of criticism . And: a takeover in such a magnitude (as a reminder: $ 68.7 billion) has certainly been prepared for many months.

When were the first talks?

Of the more surprised, many sector associated and players then when Xbox boss Phil Spencer explained that the Activision takeover was concretely on the table from November. But that does not mean that it could not have given a lot of pre-plenth, right? This time window from November to January seems extremely short. Or has Spencer lied?

More clarity now brings a document of the “United States Securities and Exchange Commission” (via CNBC). In this is a very detailed timeline of events around the takeover:

  • Event 1: On November 16, 2021, Wall Street Journal published a report, according to the Bobby Kotick, to have known sexism incidents . According to this report, the Activision share once again fell by almost $ 10 dollars.
  • Event 2: On November 18, 2021 Phil Spencer wrote an e-mail to his employees, according to the he disturbed and deeply dismayed by what happened to Activision Blizzard .
  • Event 3: On November 19, 2021 Spencer is said to have spoken directly with Bobby Kotick according to the document. Actually, it was about another topic in the conversation, but the Xbox boss used the opportunity to share the CEO: Microsoft would have an interest in discussing certain strategic possibilities.
  • Event 4: On November 20, 2021, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella clearly made Microsoft Activision Blizzard liked to buy.

No eight weeks later, the contoured deal was announced, which clearly shows how uniquely the situation and how struck Activision was after the scandal. For comparison: Sony and Bungie should have negotiated five to six months until one could agree on a takeover here.

More interested parties were there

We still have an exciting detail from the document for you. According to the SEC file, four more companies interested in a takeover should have been interested in the time. These are not mentioned in particular, but there were already rumors about it, that, for example, Facebook should have been an option . Incidentally, one of the companies wanted to take over Blizzard Entertainment and renounce the Activision and King areas. Of course, Microsoft also went very aggressive to secure the whole company as soon as possible before a competitor receives the surcharge.

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