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As expected, shareholders overwhelmingly voted to sell Activision Blizzard to Microsoft. As many as 98% of shareholders voted for the sale. "Today's overwhelmingly supportive vote by our stockholders confirms our shared belief that, combined with Microsoft, we will be even better positioned to create great value for our players," said CEO Bobby Kotick, one of the largest shareholders, which Microsoft has yet to address despite numerous scandals.
Namely, the man owns 4.3 million shares. With a redemption price of $ 95 per share agreed, Kotick will earn over $ 400 million overnight. If he decides to oust him from the position of CEO, and it is almost certain that he will, he will be paid decent severance pay, which in companies of this type reaches tens of millions of dollars.
In his case, that amount may exceed hundreds of millions, since he practically created Activision on his own and has been earning record amounts in the billions in billions for years.
U.S. politicians want to prevent Microsoft from buying Activision
However, the acquisition has not yet been resolved.
The whole thing needs to be approved by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which has yet to decide whether the takeover will distort fair competition. Last month, some senators publicly announced fears that they would distort competition, putting pressure on the commission.
A commission led by a woman who has no problem stopping giant acquisitions. The FTC has previously stopped the sale of ARM to Nvidia The woman's name is Lina Khan, and according to Bloomberg, she has been advocating a stricter approach to audits for some time.
It was under her leadership that the sale of ARM to Nvidia worth $ 40 billion was not approved. Investors themselves believe that the acquisition is not a done deal. As Bloomberg explains, an indicator of this is the share price, which is currently as much as 25% lower than the agreed buyout price, which indicates that investors are not entirely convinced that the buyout will close as planned.
The ratio of the actual share price and the agreed one is significantly less favorable than all other major acquisitions, including Elon Musk's Twitter purchase.