Activision Blizzard is owned by Microsoft (the United States, NASDAQ: MSFT), which acquired the brand on 13 October 2023.[1][2] Activision Blizzard was founded in 1979 in Santa Monica, California and was independent until 2023.
Activision Blizzard makes Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and, through King, Candy Crush. Microsoft acquired it in 2023 for $68.7 billion after a contested review in which British and American regulators both initially sought to block the deal.
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Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $95 per share in cash, about $68.7 billion, the largest acquisition ever made in the video games industry. It closed twenty-one months after announcement following contested reviews in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The Competition and Markets Authority blocked Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard in April 2023, finding it would harm competition in cloud gaming. It was the only major regulator to prohibit the deal outright, and the decision was widely reported as putting the transaction in doubt worldwide. The case was closed in August 2023 once the parties restructured.
The Federal Trade Commission challenged the acquisition in its own administrative court and separately sought a preliminary injunction in federal court to stop it closing. The injunction was denied in July 2023 and the deal completed, while the administrative proceeding remained on foot. It is a clear example of three regulators reaching three different answers on one transaction.
After the original transaction was prohibited, Microsoft restructured it to exclude the cloud streaming rights, selling them to Ubisoft. The Competition and Markets Authority reviewed the restructured deal as a separate inquiry and cleared it on 6 October 2023, allowing the acquisition to complete a week later.
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The parent company of Activision Blizzard is Microsoft, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Yes. Activision Blizzard originated in the United States in 1979 and its owner, Microsoft, is also headquartered in the United States.
Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard on 13 October 2023, after announcing the deal on 18 January 2022.
Activision Blizzard was an independent company from its founding in 1979 in Santa Monica, California until Microsoft acquired it in 2023.
Yes. As of 8 September 2026, Activision Blizzard is still owned by Microsoft. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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