Sony plummets 13% on the stock market after Microsoft’s deal with Activision

Japanese technology multinational Sony fell almost 13% on the stock market this Wednesday after its investors welcomed the purchase of the video game firm as a jug of cold water ActivisionBlizzard by Microsoft.

Sony shares opened sharply lower and were down almost 10% after the first hour of trading in Tokyo, a decline that extended throughout the day and ended at 12.78%.

The technology was the most traded company of the day and the one that registered the greatest collapse among the companies listed in the main selective of the Japanese stock market, the Nikkei, which groups the 225 most representative values.

investors of Sony reacted in this way to the operation between the two American companies, in which Microsoft’s biggest acquisition to date and a strong commitment to the video game sector, in which it is a direct competitor of Sony.

The purchase, valued at $68.7 billion, will become one of the 20 largest such deals in history when completed. It has yet to pass the scrutiny of antitrust regulators, but it has already made investors in the Japanese firm nervous.

“They think Microsoft will make all Activision Blizzard games exclusive (to Xbox), hurting PlayStation sales and helping Microsoft close Sony’s hardware sales gap,” industry consultant Serkan Toto said. the stock market crash in their social networks.

Activision is the owner of important IPs (intellectual properties) such as “Call of Duty“, “crash bandicoot“, “World of Warcraft”, “Diablo”, “Guitar Hero”, “Spyro”, “Tony Hawk”, “Overwatch”, or “candy crush“, which will pass into the hands of Microsoft.

The American company, which already has a significant presence in the world of video games with its Xbox console and titles such as “Minecraft”, will become the third largest company in the sector in terms of turnover, only surpassed by the Chinese Tencent and its own Sony, current leader in this sector of digital entertainment.

While Microsoft’s historic operation was a stock market boost for other major video game companies such as the American Electronic Arts or the French Ubisoft, Sony received the news as a blow because of the threat it represents to its current hegemony.