Technology giant Microsoft has acquired California-based video game developer Activision Blizzard — parent company of Middleton’s Raven Software — for $68.7 billion.
Launched in 1990, Raven Software creates several video games under Activision Blizzard, including the profitable Call of Duty franchise. Activision Blizzard bought Raven Software, which now has a few hundred employees, in 1997 for $12 million.
Once the deal closes in 2023, it will turn Microsoft — maker of the Xbox gaming system — into one of the world’s largest video game companies. And if the purchase “survives scrutiny from U.S. and European regulators in the coming months, it could be one of the largest tech acquisitions in history,” according to a Tuesday Associated Press report.
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