微软以690亿美元现金收购动视暴雪（上）

Business

商业

Video gaming -- High score

电子游戏——高分

Microsoft places a $69bn bet on the future of entertainments

微软押注690亿美元于娱乐业的未来

Even for Microsoft, which boasts a market value of $2.3trn, $69bn is a lot of money.

即便是对市值高达2.3万亿美元的微软来说，690亿美元也是一笔不小的数目。

On January 18th the firm said it would pay that sum—in cash—for Activision Blizzard, a video-game developer.

1月18日，该公司表示将以现金形式向视频游戏开发公司动视暴雪支付这笔款项。

It is by far the biggest acquisition in the video-game industry’s history, and the largest ever by Microsoft, more than twice the size of its purchase in 2016 of LinkedIn, a social network.

这是迄今为止视频游戏行业历史上最大的一笔收购，也是微软有史以来最大的一笔收购，规模是其2016年收购社交网络领英的两倍多。

The move, which caught industry-watchers by surprise and propelled Activision Blizzard’s share price up by 25%, represents a huge bet on the future of fun.

此举出乎行业观察人士的意料，并推动动视暴雪股价上涨了25%，它代表着对娱乐未来的巨大押注。

But not, perhaps, a crazy one.

但这并不疯狂，或许吧。

Gaming was a big, fast-growing business even before the pandemic.

即使在疫情之前，游戏也是一项快速增长的大型业务。

Lockdowns bolstered its appeal—to hardened gamers with more time on their hands and bored neophytes alike.

封锁增强了它的吸引力——对有更多时间玩游戏的老手和无聊的新手来说都是如此。

Newzoo, an analysis firm, reckons revenues grew by 23% in 2020, to nearly $180bn.

分析公司Newzoo估计，该行业2020年的收入增长了23%，达到近1800亿美元。

That growth has attracted the attention of other tech titans, including Apple, Netflix and Amazon, all of whom have dipped their toes into the market in recent years.

这种增长吸引了其他科技巨头的注意，包括苹果、网飞和亚马逊，这些公司近年来都曾涉足该市场。

Microsoft has been in the business for two decades.

微软涉足这项业务已经有20年了。

It earns $15bn a year from games, mostly thanks to its Xbox console.

该公司每年能从游戏中赚取150亿美元，这主要归功于其Xbox游戏机。

It has made a string of gaming acquisitions since 2014, when Satya Nadella, its chief executive, took the reins.

自2014年其首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉掌权以来，微软已经进行了一系列游戏收购。

Assuming it is not blocked by regulators, who are watching big tech with a beady eye, this deal would cement its position.

如果它没有被监管机构阻止的话——监管机构正密切关注着大型科技公司——这笔交易将巩固其地位。

Once completed in 2023, it will make Microsoft the third-largest video-gaming firm by revenue, behind only Tencent, a Chinese giant, and Sony, Microsoft’s perennial rival in consoles.

一旦2023年交易完成，微软将成为按收入计算的第三大视频游戏公司，仅次于中国巨头腾讯和微软在游戏机领域的长期竞争对手索尼。

Big acquisitions are always risky.

大型收购总是有风险的。

Like most companies, Microsoft has a spotty record.

和大多数公司一样，微软的履历也不尽人意。

Activision Blizzard’s share price slid by around 40% between a peak last February and the deal’s announcement, as it was embroiled in a sexual-harassment scandal.

由于卷入性骚扰丑闻，动视暴雪的股价在去年2月的峰值和交易宣布之间下跌了40%左右。

Player numbers have slipped from 530m a month in 2015 to 390m, and some recent games have had mixed reviews.

玩家数量已从2015年的每月5.3亿下滑至每月3.9亿，近期推出的一些游戏的评价褒贬不一。

Pessimists could argue that the company is overvalued.

悲观主义者可能会认为，该公司被高估了。

Optimists, who see annual revenues of $8bn and net profit margins of around 30%, might counter that it is cheap.

乐观者在看到高达80亿美元年营收和约30%的净利润率后，可能会反驳道，这也太便宜了。

Most important, Activision Blizzard has lots of content—and in video games, as in all of media, content is king, says Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis, another research firm.

最重要的是，动视暴雪拥有大量的内容——在视频游戏中，和在所有的媒体中一样，内容为王，另一家研究公司安培分析的皮尔斯·哈丁-罗尔斯说道。

Like the movie business, where “Star Wars” films, even bad ones, are reliable money-spinners, video games rely increasingly on “franchises”—popular settings or brands that can be squeezed for regular instalments.

就像电影行业，《星球大战》这种电影——即使有的是烂片——都是可靠的摇钱树，电子游戏也越来越依赖于“专营权”——受欢迎的场景或品牌，这些都可以通过按时分期付款获得。

Activision Blizzard offers, among others, “Call of Duty”, a best-selling series of military-themed shoot-’em-ups, “Candy Crush”, a popular pattern-matching mobile game, and “Warcraft”, a light-hearted fantasy setting.

动视暴雪提供了一众游戏，其中包括畅销的军事题材射击游戏《使命召唤》系列，广受欢迎的模式匹配手机游戏《糖果传奇》，以及轻松的充满奇幻设定的《魔兽争霸》。