Microsoft to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard for nearly $70bn

Microsoft is to pay almost $70bn to buy Activision Blizzard, the publisher of mega franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, in the biggest ever takeover in the tech and gaming sectors. Microsoft said that the $68.7bn (£50.6bn) It is the biggest deal in tech history, eclipsing the $67bn paid by Dell to buy the digital storage giant EMC in 2015. The deal will see the Xbox maker become the world's third-biggest gaming company by revenue behind China's Tencent and Japan's Sony, maker of PlayStation games consoles. "Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms," said Satya Nadella, the chairman and chief executive of Microsoft.