Company profile
- Industry
- Video games
- Founded
- 2008
- Headquarters
- Santa Monica, United States
- Ownership
- Subsidiary of Microsoft
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
3 verified Decision Cases on Activision Blizzard, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | What Activision Blizzard chose | Where it stood | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Adjacency Expansion | Buy King | fell from $8.80 billion in 2021 to $7.53 billion in 2022, a 14% decline (2022) | Read the story → | Adjacency Expansion Casebook → |
| 2022 | Adjacency Expansion | Accept Microsoft acquisition | The FTC authorized an administrative complaint against the merger, which was withdrawn and returned to adjudication multiple times through at least September 26, 2023. (2023-09) | Read the story → | Adjacency Expansion Casebook → |
| 2023 | The Counterfactual | Give cloud rights to Ubisoft | acquisition closed for $75.4 billion (2023-10) | Read the story → | The Counterfactual Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions Activision Blizzard faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
The analyses
The Adjacency Expansion · Growth & Portfolio
Two Games Carry Activision — and Apple and Google Take 38% Off the Top
The popular knock on Activision is creative exhaustion. The real risk is in its own filings: FY2022 revenue fell to $7.53B, operating income dropped 49%, and Apple and Google together took 38% off the top - a model where two games carry everything and the platforms set the toll.
8 min
The Adjacency Expansion · Growth & Portfolio
How Activision Bought Its Empire: A 2008 Reverse Merger, King at a Discount, a $68.7B Exit
The story is that Activision leveraged Call of Duty into a gaming empire. The deals tell another: a 2008 reverse merger, a $5.9B mobile buy at a discount to King's IPO, a $46M distressed esports grab — and a $68.7B exit that wasn't even its own.
8 min
The Counterfactual · Decision Forks
Microsoft Paid for Cloud Gaming, Then Gave the Cloud Away to Win the Deal
The '$69 billion' Microsoft-Activision deal was filed at $68.7B and closed at $75.4B. And to get there, Microsoft handed Activision's 15-year cloud-streaming rights to Ubisoft - surrendering the exact synergy that justified the price.
8 min
The Crisis Response · Crisis & Reinvention
Activision Paid $107 Million to Three Different Regulators. None of Them Agreed on What Went Wrong.
Activision Blizzard didn't have one scandal. It had a governance system that hid misconduct from its board, its investors, and three separate regulators - who fought each other on the way to $107 million in settlements that, read together, expose the real failure.
8 min
Tools to try
- Ansoff move finderFramework: Ansoff Matrix
- Business model canvas builderFramework: Business Model Canvas
- Change readiness checkFramework: Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
- Five Forces scorerFramework: Porter's Five Forces
- SMART goal builderFramework: SMART Goals
- SWOT builderFramework: SWOT Analysis
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