Activision Blizzard SEC Filing Reveals Details of Microsoft Acquisition

wowhead.com:

A Securities and Exchange Commission filing reveals more details regarding Microsoft's stunning $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. As reported by Axios, the filing reveals the timeline in which the deal was made, raises uncertainty regarding the fate of employee attempts to unionize, and highlights a couple big potential payouts for Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

The SEC filing is quite extensive, largely covering what Activision and Microsoft are or are not allowed to do between the time its approved and actually enacted, though it also offers some interesting pieces of insight as to how the deal came together. First and foremost, the filing details the sequence of events which led to Microsoft making the offer to acquire Activision Blizzard, beginning with a call from Microsoft Head of Gaming Phil Spencer on November 19th, just three days after the Wall Street Journal released a scathing article asserting that Kotick had long been aware of sexual harassment issues at Activision Blizzard. Amid a series of calls between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Phil Spencer, Activision directors Robert Morgado and Brian Kelly, and various legal counsel, Kotick and Spencer negotiated the deal from an initial offer of $80.00 per share. Although several unnamed alternatives to Microsoft were considered, including a potential private investor, Microsoft continued to push forward with limited time offers and negotiations, going so far as to make a multi-billion dollar offer at $90.00 per share on a Friday and requesting an answer by the following Monday. While it's not an unusual practice, this paints a picture of Microsoft aggressively pursuing the acquisition, pushing Activision to move