Game on: The largest acquisition in video game history just got a big green light

7/11/23 8:00PM

Game on

‍Yesterday, a US federal judge gave Microsoft the green light to proceed with its planned $69bn acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, effectively thwarting the FTC's attempt to halt the deal. The decision resulted in Activision Blizzard's share price surging to $92, the closest it's come to the $95-per-share price that Microsoft offered, suggesting investors expect the deal to go through.

Since its announcement in January 2022, the deal has encountered various obstacles, including a recent block by UK regulators, but this ruling paves the way for its completion before the agreed-upon deadline of July 18th. It also means Microsoft will avoid paying Activision the hefty $3 billion breakup fee that would have been incurred had the deal fallen through.

‍Leveling up‍

‍Activision Blizzard came into existence following a merger in 2008 between two prominent video game publishers, Activision and Vivendi Games. That brought together the creators of popular franchises such as Call of Duty and Guitar Hero with the talented developers behind World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch, establishing a behemoth in the video game industry.

However, just as the new gaming partnership was taking shape, a seismic shift was occurring with the rise of mobile gaming. As smartphones became ubiquitous, portable gaming devices were suddenly in millions of pockets. Recognizing the trend, Activision Blizzard dug into its pockets again, this time to acquire King, the producer of mobile sensation Candy Crush, for $5.9 billion in 2016. That laid the foundation for the company's mobile division, which last year accounted for nearly half of its $7.5bn+ of sales.

With mobile gaming still the fastest-growing segment of the entire market, per analytics firm NewZoo, Microsoft looks set to add a prestigious roster of games into its Xbox empire... with expertise in every format.

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Prediction markets have, predictably, been given a boost by the summer of sports

Major platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen huge upticks in users of late, thanks in no small part to what’s felt like a recent sporting smorgasbord, with major competitions across hockey, basketball, and soccer soaking up fans’ time (and spending, clearly) at the outset of summer.

While gaming industry groups may not like it, there’s been a huge change in the methods people are using to put money on the big games, with everyone from fortunate NYC bar owners, to a far less fortunate Spanish supporter, turning to prediction markets to try and turn their sports know-how into cold, hard cash.

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

2026 World Cup Reverses Seasonal Lull for Sports Betting Apps

According to a new report from Adam Blacker for apptopia, that shift might have been even more seismic than imagined in the wake of the NBA and NHL finals and around the 2026 World Cup kicking off.

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Anthropic pulls Fable and Mythos access worldwide after Trump administration bars their use by foreign nationals

Only days after releasing two versions of its next-gen AI model, Anthropic has disabled them for users worldwide.

Anthropic says it received a Friday night order from the Trump administration to suspend access to the models for any foreign national (anywhere in the world) — a group that included some Anthropic employees. In response, the company turned off access to everyone.

Last week, the company released to the public its much-anticipated Claude Fable 5 model (and its restricted version Claude Mythos 5, which is still being tested with trusted partners). Anthropic said in a blog post announcing the action that officials cited national security concerns with the new models, while offering few specific details.

The post said that the government gave the company “verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak” of the public Fable 5 model. A jailbreak is a means by which users can evade restrictions built into the code to unlock prohibited functionality. Anthropic downplayed the significance of the attack, and said other major models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-5.5, could also be affected by the technique described.

Fears of these first Mythos-class models being misused are running high, after Anthropic warned the cybersecurity world in May that the advanced cyber capabilities of Mythos have rapidly discovered thousands of vulnerabilities in ubiquitous software, leading to the decision to restrict the full version of the model to a close group of trusted partners for testing.

This morning, Axios reported that Anthropic technical staff have flown to Washington to meet with White House officials to resolve the issue.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump administration’s decision to take action against Anthropic was prompted by discussions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to the report, Amazon researchers said they had been able to evade some of Fable 5’s security restrictions using specific prompts. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic.

Anthropic is currently suing the US government to fight the Pentagon’s blacklisting of the company on national security grounds.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5