Activision Blizzard, Inc. (ATVI)

On Tuesday, Sony Group Corporation Fiscal Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year Highlights For the three months that ended in March, Sony reported revenue grew 13% YoY to 3.481 trillion yen, while net profit rose 34% YoY to 189.005 billion yen which is about $1.21 billion. The gaming business reported that operating profit more than doubled to 105.98 billion yen, while the movie business followed with a nearly doubled operating profit of 30.67 billion yen. For the fiscal year, Sony sold 20.8 million units of PlayStation 5, which is more than 19.1 million units it sold during the previous fiscal year. Like Microsoft Corporation Moreover, the videogame retailer’s stock plummeted on Friday as meme-stock mania faded. GameStop reported preliminary first quarter results and they showed a first quarter drop in sales. GameStop expects first quarter sales to range between $872 million to $892 million while it reported $1.24 billion during last year’s comparable quarter. But, GameStop is also expecting to narrow down its net loss from last year’s $50.5 million to somewhere between $27 million and $37 million. Fiscal Year Outlook The Japanese entertainment and electronics company plans to spin off its financial business, which is why it guided for a revenue drop of 5.5% to 12.310 trillion yen and a net profit decline of 4.7% to 925 billion yen. However, Sony guided for its game business operating profit to continue to rise at 6.8% to 310 billion yen. Sony also expects its movie business profits to rise 2% to 120 billion yen. Sony and Microsoft rivalry will live on, but there’s bigger fish to fry. Both for Sony and its rival Microsoft, findings ways to grow revenue is more important than winning the console war. Microsoft undoubtedly upleveled its game by acquiring Activision Blizzard but console wars are becoming less and less relevant as both Microsoft and Sony need to figure out how to evolve in the new gaming era that is in the making.

Ben Broadbent, a member of the Bank of England's rate-setting committee, said the base rate could be cut at some point this summer. Deputy governor Broadbent, who steps down next month after 13 years on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), made the comment in a speech this morning. Following on from comments about the persistence of inflation, he said there is a "range of views" across the MPC on how persistent inflation could be. "In view of the rarity of events like this over the past, and the associated uncertainty about the future, that’s entirely understandable. "Whatever the priors of its individual members the MPC will continue to learn from the incoming data and, if things continue to evolve with its forecasts – forecasts that suggest policy will have to become less restrictive at some point – then it’s possible Bank Rate could be cut some time over the summer." His comments come ahead of the Office for National Statistics publishing the latest consumer price index on Wednesday, which is expected to show a sharp drop in the level of inflation, close to the MPC's 2% target. At the last policy meeting, two members of the committee voted for a cut, though the majority vote, including Broadbent, led to rates being kept at 5.25%. A month ago, the ONS data showed CPI inflation was 3.2% in March, with April forecast to see a big softening to 2.1% in the annual rate, as the month-on-month figure eases to 0.2% from 0.6%. Keywords Studios PLC (AIM:KWS, OTC:KYYWF) has confirmed the receipt of a bid approach from EQT Group worth around £2.2bn. Dublin-based games services specialist Keywords said it was one of a series of potential deals tabled by the private equity firm, but this one being at the value the "board would be minded to recommend". EQT, which has around £200 billion under management, has until the close of business on June 15 to table a formal offer. If the acquisition goes ahead, Keywords investors would receive £22.50 a share - a 53% premium to Friday's closing price - plus they'd be entitled to the final dividend payment. Since hitting a high of more than £33 in September 2021, the shares have almost halved in value amid worries that AI may be used to carry many of the games industry tasks outsourced to the company by customers such as Activision Blizzard and Tencent. In the last year, the share price has tumbled 36%. In a statement to the stock exchange Keywords: "The board remains confident in the company's growth strategy of building the only truly global platform providing solutions to the video games and entertainment industries, both organically and through acquisitions, and EQT is supportive of this strategy. The company employs 13,000 people in 26 countries and has grown from a £50 million market capitalisation when it debuted on AIM in 2023.

Keyword Studios (LON: KWS) share price has staged a strong recovery in the past few weeks. It jumped to 1,470p on Friday, its highest swing since March 13th. Its highest point was a 33% increase from its lowest level this year. Keyword Studios stock price will likely surge hard on Monday after reports emerged that EQT, a Swedish private equity company, is in talks to buy it for £2.2 billion. The company’s stock had a market cap of over $1.16 billion, meaning that EQT is paying a 70% premium. It is unclear whether Keyword will accept the deal since it had rejected an offer before. However, I believe that a 70% premium is a good one and that the company might finally agree. Keyword Studios stock chart Many companies have deteriorated after turning away takeover deals. For example, Entain rejected a $11 billion offer from MGM in 2021. Today, it has a market cap of just $4.6 billion. Similarly, THG, formerly known as The Hut Group, rejected a big deal from Apollo Global. Its market cap has now crashed to over $984 million. Keyword’s management may also agree to the deal because of its upcoming annual general meeting, which is scheduled for Friday this week. The most recent financial results showed that Keyword Studios’s revenue rose by 13% to over £780 million while its operating profit crashed by 35% to £47 million. Its basic earnings per share fell by 59% to 25.3 cents. For starters, Keyword Studios is a leading company in the gaming industry. It offers game development solutions to firms like Activision Blizzard and Tencent. Some of its top games are Battlegrounds Arena, Alan Wake, and Borderlands. Keyword’s acquisition comes at a time when demand for British companies is rising. Thoma Bravo has acquired Darktrace in a $4.5 billion deal while International Paper is acquiring DS Smith in a £5.8 billion deal. Investors believe that British stocks are intrinsically undervalued compared to their global peers. Indeed, while the FTSE 100 index has surged, it has a price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 13, compared to the S&P 500’s 22. Foreign investors are also being encouraged by the weak British pound, which has dropped by over 10% from its highest level in 2021. The post Here’s why the Keyword Studios share price is surging appeared first on Invezz

Videogame giant Activision Blizzard is set to pay around $50 million to settle a lawsuit by a California regulator, a US news report said Friday.

Videogame maker Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay nearly $55 million to settle a California civil-rights lawsuit brought over complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination and pay disparities by women employees that helped trigger the company's acquisition by Microsoft.

Activision Blizzard will pay roughly $50 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit by a California regulator that alleged the videogame maker discriminated against women employees, including denying them promotion opportunities and underpaying them.

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to overturn a ruling that denied its request to temporarily block Microsoft Corp MSFT $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The FTC is trying to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the maker of the popular "Call of Duty" franchise, after a lower court allowed the deal to proceed.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly continuing its legal battle to challenge Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the maker of popular video game franchise “Call of Duty.” The FTC argues that the deal raises serious competitive concerns and could lead to Microsoft dominating the gaming industry, Reuters reported Wednesday (Dec. 6).

Warren Buffett wrote an op-ed for The New York Times during the financial markets collapse in 2008 titled, “ Buy American. I Am. ” At the time, the housing market was in free fall, Lehman Brothers had just imploded, and the stock market tumbled 20% on its way to losing more than half its value before hitting bottom.

Warren Buffett is known for holding onto his S&P 500 stocks forever. But that definitely wasn't the case recently.

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