Microsoft has plans to acquire gaming giant Activision Blizzard Inc. (Blizzard) in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion. The acquisition will make Microsoft the third-largest gaming company by revenue just behind China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony.

Blizzard owns phenomenal franchises that include “Warcraft,” “Diablo,” “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush.” With studios around the world, the gaming company employs 10,000. Activision Blizzard has nearly 400 million monthly active players in 190 countries and $3 billion franchises

“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, chair and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

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Bobby Kotick will remain as CEO of Activision Blizzard but when the deal closes, the company will report to Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming.

“For more than 30 years our incredibly talented teams have created some of the most successful games,” said Kotick. “The combination of Activision Blizzard’s world-class talent and extraordinary franchises with Microsoft’s technology, distribution, access to talent, ambitious vision, and shared commitment to gaming and inclusion will help ensure our continued success in an increasingly competitive industry.”