Microsoft closes the deal; Arm has Wall Street salivating: Weekly tech roundup
By Louis Juricic and Sarina Isaacs
Investing.com — Here is your weekly Pro Recap on the biggest headlines out of a big earnings week for tech: Microsoft closes the deal — and owes a boatload of taxes; Arm Holdings earns top ratings from analysts; Netflix slashed.
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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) have finally completed the transaction to merge — Microsoft's largest deal in its 48-year history — after intense regulatory scrutiny and related delays, per the deal that the companies announced back in January 2022.
In accordance with that agreement, Activision Blizzard became a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft as a subsidiary of Microsoft — Anchorage Merger Sub Inc. — merged with and into Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft successfully addressed myriad competition concerns from U.K. and European regulators and received a favorable ruling from a U.S. district judge in this regard, and the news came after the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the buyout, excluding cloud gaming rights, would help maintain competitive pricing and improve services.
Still, even after the closing of the deal, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it continued to oppose the pact and remained focused on its appeal against it.
“Today we start the work to bring beloved Activision, Blizzard, and King franchises to Game Pass and other platforms,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a blog post.
Separately, Microsoft revealed in an 8-K filing that the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) has notified the company of a $28.9 billion back-tax claim, along with penalties and interest, for the tax years 2004
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