Acquisitions and sale of Microsoft assets

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2023

Microsoft completes $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard

After almost two years of struggle with global regulators, which threatened to disrupt the deal, Microsoft in October 2023 announced the completion of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.

The largest acquisition in the video game industry's history has allowed console maker Xbox to take a stronger stand against rivals, lifting it from fifth to third in the world behind Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Sony Group Corp.

Investing $10 billion in OpenAI

On January 23, 2023, Microsoft announced a multi-year agreement with OpenAI, the developer of the ChatGPT AI chatbot. We are talking about the third stage of a long-term partnership, during which Microsoft will provide OpenAI with multi-billion dollar support for the development of innovative technologies. Read more here.

2022

Buying 4% London Stock Exchange

On December 11, 2022, Microsoft announced a long-term partnership agreement with the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). We are talking about the use of Microsoft cloud technologies. Read more here.

Microsoft received a refusal from the US antitrust authority to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion

In early December 2022, the US Federal Trade Commission blocked a deal to buy Microsoft game developer Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. This is due to the regulator's fears that as a result of the deal, new owners will be able to deny competitors access to game content. Read more here.

Purchase of cyberattack detection service provider from other Miburo countries

On June 14, 2022, it became known about the sale of Miburo to Microsoft. Its participants did not disclose the financial side of the transaction. Read more here.

Purchase of game developer Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion

On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion (includes cash on the balance sheet of the company being sold). Under the terms of the agreement, shareholders of the game developer will receive $95 for each security they own.

The Activision deal was Microsoft's largest acquisition in its history.

There has Bloomberg been no such major Saudi Aramco acquisition since the energy giant Sabic gained control of the chemical maker in a $69 billion deal dollars announced in 2019, according to data. More. here

Investing in environmental fuel developer for LanzaJet data centers

In mid-January 2022, Microsoft announced an investment of $50 million in LanzaJet. The cash will go toward building Freedom Pines, the world's first jet propellant plant, in Hawaii in the United States. Read more here.

2021

Buying a marketplace selling Xandr ads

On December 21, 2021, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Xandr, but did not disclose the cost and other terms of the transaction. The seller of the platform was AT & T. Read more here.

Two Hat Content Moderation Software Developer Purchase

At the end of October 2021, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Two Hat, but did not disclose the value of the transaction. At the time of the announcement of the agreement, the sold startup raised a total of $9 million, and the number of employees in it is about 60 people. Read more here.

Purchase of Oracle and SAPClear Software Clear Software Integration Platform Developer

On October 22, 2021, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Clear Software, a developer of tools to speed up complex business tasks that involve many applications. The buyer intends to use the developments of the absorbed company to improve Power Apps and Power Automate. Read more here.

Buying Ally Collaboration Software Developer

On October 7, 2021, Microsoft announced the purchase of Ally Technologies at an undisclosed price. After the acquisition, the startup will become part of the Microsoft Viva project, within which the platform of the same name for employee collaboration is being developed. Read more here.

Purchase of TakeLessons Training Marketplace

On September 10, 2021, Microsoft announced the acquisition of TakeLessons. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read more here.

Clipchamp Video Editing Software Developer Purchase

On September 7, 2021, Microsoft announced a takeover of Clipchamp at a price the companies would not disclose. The buyer intends to integrate the purchased service with his set of Microsoft 365 applications and, possibly, with Windows. Read more here.

Buying a technology developer to stream video from Peer5 companies

In early August 2021, Microsoft announced the purchase of Peer5. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction. Read more here.

Purchase of the developer of the cloud platform for managing expenses Suplari

At the end of July 2021, Microsoft bought the developer of the cloud-based expense management platform Suplari. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Microsoft plans to merge Suplari Spend Intelligence Cloud (Suplari's core product) with Dynamics 365. Read more here.

Buying cloud security platform developer CloudKnox Security

Microsoft acquired CloudKnox Security, a developer of a platform for protecting cloud resources and distinguishing access authority in cloud and hybrid infrastructures. The size of the deal between Microsoft and CloudKnox has not been disclosed. This became known on July 21, 2021. Read more here.

Purchase of information security company RiskIQ

On July 12, 2021, Microsoft announced the acquisition of RiskIQ, but did not name the value of the transaction. Bloomberg, citing its informant, reports that we are talking about an amount exceeding $500 million. Read more here.

Acquisition of Internet of Things security startup ReFirm

Microsoft Corporation on June 2, 2021 announced the acquisition of ReFirm Labs, a developer of security tools for software shells of embedded and IoT devices. Information on the value of the transaction between Microsoft and ReFirm has not been disclosed. Read more here.

Purchase of Linux distribution manufacturer Kinvolk

At the end of April 2021, Microsoft acquired Kinvolk, the creator and distributor of the Flatcar Container Linux solution. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Read more here.

Nuance purchase for $19.7 billion

On April 12, 2021, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Nuance Communications. The transaction is worth $19.7 billion, it includes debts of the sold developer of voice recognition technologies. Read more here.

Investing in Data Analytics Software Developer Databricks

In early February 2021 Databricks , it raised $1 billion from Amazon Web Services CapitalG (a private company under management), Alphabet and, Salesforce Ventures Google Microsoft which had previously invested in Databricks. The developer's estimate rose ON to $28 billion. More. here

2020

ZeniMax Media purchase for $7.5 billion

Microsoft Corporation on September 21, 2020 announced the purchase of ZeniMax Media, which owns a number of well-known game studios, including Bethesda. The agreement was officially announced by both parties. Read more here.

Investment in PandaDoc Document Automation Software Developer

In early August 2020, PandaDoc announced it was raising $30 million in investments. Most of all, according to the results of the funding round, the One Peak Partners fund invested. Other investors included venture capital fund Microsoft (M12), Savano Capital Partners, Rembrandt Venture Partners and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Read more here.

Intention to buy TikTok business in the United States and several other countries

On August 3, 2020, it became known that Microsoft is in preliminary negotiations to buy the short video platform TikTok (social network) in the United States and several other countries a few days after the Trump administration threatened to ban this popular service. Read more here.

Purchase of AI technology developer for Orions Systems video systems

In July 2020, the sale of Orions Systems to Microsoft was officially announced. Thanks to this deal, the cost of which its participants did not disclose, Microsoft will be able to improve the Dynamics 365 Connected Store system, which helps stores and other companies better understand customer behavior. Read more here.

Purchase of IT company ADRM Software

In mid-June 2020, Microsoft announced the acquisition of ADRM Software, which helps large enterprises manage their data. This deal, the cost of which has not been disclosed, reflects the tendency of cloud giants to buy firms with ready-made solutions that are able to optimize the operation of cloud platforms. Read more here.

Purchase of RPA Softomotive Solution Developer

On May 19, 2020, the corporation Microsoft announced the acquisition of a solution developer. RPA Softomotive More. here

Purchase of 5G software developer Metaswitch Networks

On May 14, 2020 Microsoft , she announced the acquisition of a developer ON for - 5G nets, Metaswitch Networks but did not name the value of the transaction. Thanks to this purchase, the software giant expects to make its cloud platform even Azure more attractive to telecommunication customers. More. here

Purchase of the developer of solutions for cyber defense of the Internet of Things CyberX for $165 million

In May 2020, it became known about the sale of an Israeli developer of solutions for cyber defense internet of things CyberX to the company Microsoft for $165 million. More. here

Purchase of software developer Affirmed Networks

On March 26, 2020, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Affirmed Networks, which will allow the American software corporation to engage in technologies for fifth generation (5G) networks. The buyer intends to use the developments of Affirmed Networks to expand the capabilities of its Azure cloud infrastructure . Read more here.

Microsoft bought the creator of the open source storage software

In mid-March 2020, Microsoft announced the acquisition of NPM to strengthen its position in the open source software development community. Read more here.

2019

Buying a Service to Move Data to the Mover Cloud

On October 21, 2019, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Mover to make it easier for its business customers to implement Office 365 products. The cost of the transaction of the company decided to keep secret. Read more here.

Repurchase of shares for $40 billion

On September 18, 2019, Microsoft announced a buyback of $40 billion. This program was approved by the board of directors.

It is noted that a new program that does not have a validity period can be terminated at any time. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019, Microsoft returned $7.7 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and dividend payments.

Microsoft's board of directors approved the previous byback program in September 2016. Its volume also amounted to $40 billion. 

On September 18, 2019, Microsoft also announced a quarterly dividend of 51 cents per share, up 11% from the previous quarter. The company plans to hold its annual shareholder meeting on December 4.

After the announcement of the dividend increase and a new share buyback program, Microsoft quotes rose. On September 19, 2019, the company's securities rose by 2%, and the market capitalization reached $1.08 trillion. That's more than any other publicly traded company in the world. The closest pursuer - Apple - has a capitalization of just under $1 trillion.^[1]

Buying a Semmle Code Analysis Platform

On September 18, 2019, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Semmle to improve its service for the joint development of GitHub IT projects. The company did not disclose the value of the transaction. Previously, Semmle raised a total of $31 million in investments. Read more here.

Purchase of Movere software developer

On September 4, 2019, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Movere, but did not disclose how much the purchase cost the company. Read more here.

Purchase of Java optimization software developer jClarity

August 19, 2019 Microsoft announced the purchase of a developer ON to optimize - Java application. jClarity More. here

Buying a marketing technology developer for online retailers

In early August 2019, Microsoft announced the acquisition of marketing technology developer for online retailers PromoteIQ. Read more here.

Microsoft bought the developer of the BlueTalon platform, which manages access to data in companies

On July 29, 2019, Microsoft announced the purchase of the developer of the BlueTalon platform, which manages data access at companies. Read more here.

Investing $1 billion in OpenAI

July 23, 2019 it became known that Microsoft will invest $1 billion in the non-profit organization OpenAI, based in San Francisco. The parties have entered into a multi-year partnership to develop supercomputer technologies based on artificial intelligence for the Microsoft Azure cloud service. Read more here.

Purchase of software collaboration tool developer Pull Panda

On June 17, 2019, Microsoft announced the acquisition of software collaboration tool developer Pull Panda and is set to merge the purchased startup with the GitHub platform. Read more here.

Purchase of digital identification technology developer Drawbridge

On May 28, 2019 Microsoft , she announced the acquisition of a developer of digital identification technologies, Drawbridge but did not disclose the value of the transaction. The technologies of the absorbed company will help the buyer improve marketing solutions that are developed by the business social network included in Microsoft LinkedIn and which are used by marketers to create advertising, as well as to attract potential customers and traffic to the site. More. here

Purchase of IoT OS developer Express Logic

On April 18, 2019, Microsoft Corporation announced the acquisition of Express Logic for an unnamed amount. Thanks to this purchase, Microsoft will have three operating systems for the Internet of Things - ThreadX RTOS will join Windows 10 IoT and Azure Sphere. Microsoft calls the latter its "main security solution in the field of microcontrollers." Read more here.

Purchase of DataSense data analysis platform from BrightBytes

On February 4, 2019, Microsoft announced the purchase of data management platform DataSense from BrightBytes to expand the analytical capabilities of its products used in schools, universities and other educational institutions. Read more here.

Purchase of DBMS developer based on PostgreSQL Citus Data

On January 24, 2019, Microsoft announced the acquisition of a PostgreSQL-based DBMS developer, Citus Data. Read more here.

2018

Investing in Graphcore AI Processor Developer

In December 2018, it became known that the developer of processors for AI applications attracted Graphcore about $200 million in investments. According to the results of this round of financing, the company was valued at $1.5 billion. Major companies such as,, and Microsoft BMW Group Dell Samsung Electronics invested in Graphcore. More. here

Purchase of FSLogix Virtualized Desktop Provenance Technology Developer

On November 19, 2018, Microsoft announced the acquisition of visionary virtualization technology developer FSLogix. Read more here.

Purchase of chatbot developer XOXCO

In November 2018, Microsoft announced the purchase of XOXCO. For Microsoft, this is the fourth AI developer purchase since the beginning of the year. Read more here.

Buying a tool developer to easily create Lobe AI applications

On September 13, 2018, Microsoft officially announced the acquisition of Lobe. Read more here.

Investment in Hyas

In early August 2018, it became known about the investment of $6.2 million in Hyas. This funding round was led by Microsoft's M12 venture capital arm. Read more here.

Purchase of offices near the headquarters for $250 million

On June 20, 2018, it became known that Microsoft bought an office complex worth about $250 million near its headquarters in Redmond. The deal includes the 725,000-square-foot (67,354 sq m) Daytona Laguna complex, which Microsoft acquired from Blackstone, a private equity Microsoft. In turn, Blackstone bought this complex of buildings for $204 million two years earlier.

The new complex will allow Microsoft to expand its office space as the company plans to begin an overhaul of its Redmond campus soon. Although the amount of the deal itself looks impressive, in fact, the acquisition of Daytona Laguna will add only 5% of the new area to the already existing 15 million square feet campus.

However, Microsoft is not going to stop there - the campus redevelopment project, which the tech giant is set to embark on in the fall of 2018, includes 18 new buildings and 2.5 million square feet of new office space.

Microsoft also plans to demolish twelve older buildings that no longer meet its requirements and replace them entirely. Overall, the campus, which has 125 buildings as of mid-2018, is set to increase to 231 buildings by the time the project is completed.

Microsoft says that the innovative concept of the campus will completely transform the lives of workers and create the most favorable conditions for work and leisure - the buildings on the campus will be located in such a way as to best use daylight hours, and when building new premises, environmentally friendly materials will be used.

Thus, Microsoft plans to get an area for another 12 thousand workers who will be able to live and work on a comfortable campus. During the overhaul, a 2-acre platform will be added to it with footpaths, a football and cricket field, a sports and leisure center, trading floors and underground parking.

A complete renovation of the campus is expected to be completed by December 2019.^[2]

Buying social learning platform Flipgrid

Microsoft Corporation on June 19, 2018 announced the purchase of Flipgrid Inc., the developer of the eponymous social learning platform. By joining the corporation, Flipgrid will retain its brand, culture and team. Read more here.

Buying Bonsai

In June 2018 Microsoft , she announced the purchase of a technology developer. artificial intelligence Bonsai The parties decided not to disclose the financial component of the contract. More. here

Buying Semantic Machines

On May 20, 2018, Microsoft announced the purchase of voice recognition technology developer Semantic Machines. Read more here.

2017

Buying AltspaceVR

In early October 2017, Microsoft announced the acquisition of the AltspaceVR social network in order to improve its virtual reality (VR) projects. Read more here.

Buying Cloudyn

On June 29, 2017, Microsoft announced the acquisition of cloud company Cloudyn. How much the software giant paid for this startup is not officially reported, however, as the IT edition of TechCrunch writes, we are talking about the amount of $50 to $70 million. Read more here.

Buying Hexadite

On May 24, 2017, it became known about the sale of a solution developer for the cyber security Hexadite corporation. Microsoft This is far from the first acquisition of an Israeli information security company by an American software giant. More. here

Purchase of Intentional Software

April 18, 2017 Microsoft announced the purchase. Intentional Software Through this acquisition, the software giant intends to improve the package. software Office The value of the transaction was not disclosed. More. here

2016

Purchase of LinkedIn for $26 billion

On June 13, 2016 American , the manufacturer software Microsoft announced a purchase for LinkedIn $26.2 billion.

The value of the transaction, which is planned to be closed in 2016, will be $196 per share of LinkedIn, which is 50% more compared to the quotes of the business social network by the close of the exchange on June 10, 2016. At the same time, Microsoft securities on the day of the announcement of the acquisition of LinkedIn fell 2.7%. Read more here.

Close Phone Unit Sale

On December 1, 2016, Nokia officially announced the return of its brand to the mobile phone market. True, the Finnish company itself will neither develop devices nor sell them - it will act only as a licensor.

According to Nokia, the deal announced on May 18, 2016 to sell the business of producing conventional mobile phones Microsoft to the Finnish company HMD Global and the Chinese FIH Mobile (part of the group) Foxconn Technology for $350 million was closed. More. here

Message about the sale of the business for the release of ordinary mobile phones

May Microsoft 18, 2016 announced the sale of the business for the production of conventional mobile phones for more than a third of a billion. dollars This deal will allow the company Nokia to return to the global market smartphones and tablets.

According to Microsoft, the company sells all assets related to the development and production of entry-level push-button phones, China's FIH Mobile (a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group) and Finland's HMD Global for $350 million. The deal is scheduled to close in the second half of 2016, it must be approved by regulators in advance.^[3]

Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will transfer to FIH Mobile and HMD Global absolutely all business related to the release of ordinary "mobile phones": brands, software, service network, contracts with customers and suppliers, as well as the production division of Microsoft Mobile Vietnam. In addition, about 4.5 thousand Microsoft employees will move to FIH Mobile or HMD Global.

After getting rid of the production of budget mobile phones, Microsoft will focus on developing the Windows 10 Mobile operating system and supporting Lumia smartphones, as well as OEM partner devices.

Meanwhile, Nokia announced a partnership with HMD Global, planning to resume the release of smartphones and tablets under its brand. These devices will run on the Android software platform.

HMD Global will pay Nokia a percentage of mobile device sales for using the partner's trademark and intellectual property rights. HMD Global is also set to invest more than $500 million to promote Nokia gadgets.

After the closure of the deal to sell part of Microsoft's telephone business to FIH Mobile and HMD Global, the latter will be led by Arto Nummela, head of Microsoft Devices in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and head of business for the production of regular Microsoft cell phones.^[4]

SwiftKey Purchase

On February 3, 2016, Microsoft announced the acquisition of mobile app developer SwiftKey, but did not name the value of the deal. According to several authoritative Western publications, we are talking about $250 million. Read more here.

Buying Xamarin

On February 26, 2016, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Xamarin.

According to the corporation's plans, Xamarin will provide ample opportunities for developing built-in C# APIs for all the most common operating systems. This approach will help you get all the benefits of .NET and use a single code to develop applications when working on iOS, Android and Windows, while maintaining a common experience of using each of the platforms.

We have been working with Xamarin for a long time and successfully. The company's solution is integrated into Visual Studio tools, Microsoft Azure platform, Office 365 services and Enterprise Mobility Suite, which gives developers a convenient way to work for creating applications on any platform. The signing of this agreement is a new stage in the development of mobile development tools and services. The combination of Xamarin, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Team Services and Azure will allow us to create a comprehensive functional solution for developing mobile applications on any platform. Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise Microsoft Group

Xamarin works with 15,000 organizations in 120 countries, more than 100 of which are on the Fortune 500 list. The company's customers include Alaska Airlines, Coca-Cola Bottling, Thermo Fisher, Honeywell and JetBlue, SuperGiant Games and Gummy Drop.

2015

Adallom purchase for $320 million

On July 20, 2015, it became known about the sale of Adallom (an Israeli developer of cloud security products Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Salesforce, ServiceNow, etc.) to Microsoft. First, this information was disseminated by the media, and then confirmed in the camp of the software giant. Microsoft buys Adallom for $320 million in cash. All 90 employees of the Israeli company will remain working in the country, helping Microsoft build a local business in the field of information security.

Sale of part of assets

On June 29, 2015, Microsoft announced the sale of some of its online assets. The company decided to get rid of part of the mapping and advertising business in order to pay more attention to mobile and cloud technologies.

According to Reuters news agency, citing a statement from Microsoft, the company is selling Uber, a taxi ordering service, part of its division responsible for generating and processing images for Bing digital cards. About 100 Microsoft employees working in this area will move to Uber.

Microsoft decided to sell part of the mapping and advertising business

Microsoft will also transfer a data center in Colorado, cameras, software and licenses for various intellectual property related to the mapping direction. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Simultaneously with the sale of mapping assets, Microsoft announced its withdrawal from the graphic (display) advertising market. As part of a 10-year agreement signed with media conglomerate AOL, the latter will sell various types of advertising on Microsoft services such as MSN, Outlook, Xbox and Skype.

Cooperation applies only to some countries, including USA Canada,,, Great Britain,, Brazil,, and Germany. In Spain Italy, France Japan Denmark,, Belgium, Ireland Norway, Netherlands Portugal, Finland, and Microsoft's advertising Switzerland Sweden business will be led by AppNexus, with which, according to a statement dated June 29, 2015, the partnership was expanded.

Under the terms of the contract with AOL, 1,200 engineers and specialists in the field of advertising and marketing will move from Microsoft to this company. Some employees will be employed by AppNexus.

In addition, from January 1, 2016, Microsoft Bing will become the main search engine on all AOL sites , Bing Ads ad sale technology will be introduced. Before the agreement with Microsoft in this market, AOL collaborated with Google.^[5]

Microsoft wanted to buy Salesforce.com for $55 billion

On May 22, 2015, it became known about the negotiations on the merger of Salesforce and Microsoft. The companies were unable to reach an agreement due to disagreements on the financial issue.

According to CNBC, citing sources familiar with the situation, in the spring of 2015, Microsoft and Salesforce.com held "thorough negotiations" that did not end with the conclusion of the deal. The fact is that the founder and CEO of Salesforce.com, Marc Benioff, was not satisfied with the price that Microsoft offered for the purchase of the company - $55 billion. Benioff expected to receive at least $70 billion.

Revolution Analytics Takeover

On April 6, 2015, Microsoft announced the closure of the acquisition of Revolution Analytics. The purchase price has not been announced. Joseph Sirosh, corporate vice president of Microsoft Information Management and Machine Learning, spoke about how the software giant intends to use the solutions of the absorbed firm.

According to him, Microsoft is going to add the statistical programming language R to SQL Server, thanks to which the company will offer fast and scalable analytics in relational database management systems that deploy in data centers, the Azure cloud and hybrid cloud systems.

Buying LiveLoop

March 27, 2015 it became known about the purchase of Microsoft by LiveLoop. This developer of collaboration software tools has added to the list of acquisitions made by the American corporation to improve Office's capabilities. The value of the deal has not been named.

2010: Novell asset buybacks

In November 2010, Novell announced a final agreement to simultaneously sell some of its intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of high-tech companies organized by Microsoft, for $450 million. Novell's copyrights for the Unix operating system after the sale of the company remained under the control of the new owner, Attachmate, and were not sold to Microsoft as part of other intellectual property.

See also

• M&A Mergers & Acquisitions
• Cisco Takeovers
• Acquisitions and sale of Microsoft assets
• SAP Acquisitions
• Oracle takeovers
• Acquisitions and divestment of Intel assets
• Acquisitions and divestment of IBM assets

Notes