Microsoft, Activision Blizzard: Skadden, Simpson Thacher and Weil for $68.7bn appropriation

Microsoft, Activision Blizzard: Skadden, Simpson Thacher and Weil for $68.7bn appropriation

With an expectation to appeal regulatory inspection, Metaverse-focused deal is to make Microsoft third-largest gaming company.

Microsoft's landmark US$68.7bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard are instructed by Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Weil Gotshal & Manges.

As announced today, the deal claimed by Microsoft will make it the world's third-largest gaming company by revenue behind Tencent and Sony. Expected to close in 2023, it looks to develop its metaverse platforms.

Acting for Activision Blizzard, Skadden is the Santa Monica-based gaming giant behind popular gaming franchises. It includes Call of Duty, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Advising the multinational, Simpson Thacher is the legal counsel to Microsoft, with Weil acts as additional counsel on antitrust.

M&A partners Alan Klein, Anthony Vernace and William Allen, tax partner Jonathan Goldestein, executive compensation and benefits partner Greg Grogan, intellectual property partner Lori Lesser and litigation partner Brooke Cucinella are the members comprising of New York-based Simpson Thacher's team.

Bill Bretani and Washington DC-based regulatory partners Abram Ellis and Mick Tuesley, the Palo Alto-based capital markets partner also have directed on the contract.

In the meantime, Weil's team comprises of partners Michael Moiseyev, Megan Granger and Vadim Brusser in DC. Jenine Hulsmann and Niklas Maydell partners counselled on the contract from London and Brussels respectively.

Based on the report by Bloomberg Law, M&A partners Kenton King and Sonia Nijjar, executive compensation partner Regina Olshan, antitrust partners Steven Sunshine, Maria Raptis, Bill Batchelor, Ingrid Vandenborre and Andrew Foster, IP partner Ken Kumayama and tax partner Nathan Giesselman consist of Skadden's line-up deal.

Marking as Microsoft's largest acquisition, the deal paid skyrocketing past the $26bn paid to acquire LinkedIn in 2016. It is expected to attract important regulatory analysis.

On completion of the deal, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotich will continue to serve in his role. It will be subjected to customary closing conditions and close of regulatory and shareholder evaluations.

According to Satya Nadella, Microsoft chairman and CEO, Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and would play a main role in the metaverse platforms growth.

Nadella informed that by obtaining Activision Blizzard, Microsoft hopes to "lead in a new age of gaming that puts players and creators first" by making gaming "secured, comprehensive and available" to all users.

2021 saw global deals smash through the US$5tr barrier for the first time on record, much of it driven by the US tech sector while the deal continues a record run of M&A.

In Refinitiv's 2021 global M&A legal adviser ranking by value, Simpson Thacher takes up sixth position, Skadden seventh and Weil the 14th.