Wednesday, January 19, 2022

g-f(2)836 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/19/2022), Media, More reactions to Microsoft's strategic move


VIRAL KNOWLEDGE: The “genioux facts” knowledge news


The New World NEWS

If you only have some seconds




ULTRA-condensed knowledge


"g-f" fishing of golden knowledge (GK) of the fabulous treasure of the digital age, The New World, Strategic move in The Trillion Dollar Super League (1/19/2022)  g-f(2)426 


Lessons learned, Media

EXCEPTIONAL “Full Pack Golden Knowledge Container”


Microsoft is a global leader with multiple extraordinary strengths


  • In sports terms Microsoft plays in an exclusive super league: The Trillion Dollar Super League.
  • The technology giants that shape so much of our lives dominate in yet another way: They lead the pack of the country’s best-run companies. In the 2020 lineup, Microsoft Corp. unseated Amazon.com Inc. as No. 1 by performing consistently well across each of the five main components of the overall ranking compiled by researchers at Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker Institute: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility and financial strength. g-f(2)67
  • In this "genioux fact" we extract golden knowledge juice from major media outlets.
    • g-f(2)834 THE NEW WORLD (1/19/2022), WSJ + Media, Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Deal to Power Its Netflix-of-Gaming Aspirations


Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image


References


WaPo, The Washington Post, Microsoft is bigger than Google, Amazon and Facebook. But now lawmakers treat it like an ally in antitrust battles, Cat Zakrzewski, January 19, 2022.

NYT, The New York Times, It’s Not Complicated. Microsoft Wants Activision for Its Games, Kellen Browning, January 19, 2022.

Time, Microsoft Buying Activision Blizzard Might Be Good For Gamers, But Bad for Developers, Patrick Lucas Austin, January 19, 2022.


TechCrunch, Why Microsoft’s $2T+ market cap makes its $68B Activision buy a cheap bet, Ron Miller, Alex Wilhelm, January 19, 2022.

Yahoo!news, Reuters, World Bank chief takes swipe at Microsoft's $69 billion gaming deal as poor countries struggle, January 19, 2022.




Extra-condensed knowledge



Lessons learned, Media


Microsoft is bigger than Google, Amazon and Facebook 

Golden Knowledge (GK) Juice


  1. WaPo, Microsoft is bigger than Google, Amazon and Facebook. But now lawmakers treat it like an ally in antitrust battles.
    • When Google announced in 2019 that it would acquire Fitbit for $2 billion, lawmakers didn’t hide their frustration.
    • But more than 24 hours after Microsoft announced its plans to purchase Activision for nearly $70 billion, aggressive trustbusters in Congress were uncharacteristically quiet. 
    • The silence underscores how Microsoft has carved out a distinct reputation among policymakers, distancing itself from the political scrutiny embroiling its top competitors in Washington. As Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google were marshaling their Washington resources to beat back competition legislation up for debate on Capitol Hill this week, Microsoft smoothly announced one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the tech industry. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
  2. NYT, It’s Not Complicated. Microsoft Wants Activision for Its Games.
    • Activision has a lot of popular games that fit into Microsoft’s plans to build a vast library of titles that can be played on all sorts of devices. The metaverse can wait.
    • To Microsoft, the future of video games looks more like a Hollywood studio trying to build a roster of well-known franchises. It’s about assembling a collection of famous games that can be played on all sorts of devices — and the people who know how to make them. Activision, with famous titles like Call of Duty and Candy Crush and more than 5,000 game developers, has plenty of both.
    • In recent years, Microsoft has shifted its focus from its Xbox console to a gaming environment where high-powered devices matter less than the flexibility to play games wherever and however consumers want, whether on an old iPhone or a cheap laptop. If the company’s vision of the future is correct, cloud gaming, a still-emerging technology that uses a company’s data centers to stream the game to a device, would provide the power instead.
  3. Time, Microsoft Buying Activision Blizzard Might Be Good For Gamers, But Bad for Developers
    • The purchase also brings into the Microsoft fold close to an extra 400 million monthly active players, giving its subscription service, Game Pass, a potentially huge boost. The Netflix-but-for-games service grew dramatically since its launch in 2017, and added over a dozen games to its lineup after its acquisition of the gaming giant Bethesda in 2021. That buy sent the service from 18 million users in 2021 to over 25 million users as of January 2022.
    • Microsoft buying a studio that makes games for multiple platforms could mean trouble for gamers uninterested in Microsoft’s Xbox platform. Games like Skyrim were successful due to multiple releases on a variety of platforms like the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Since then, the 10-year-old title has been brought to every major platform, including the Nintendo Switch. An acquisition from a company like Microsoft could likely mean a sequel would be only available to Xbox users, mobile devices, or PC gamers using Windows, leaving out players using Sony and Nintendo consoles.


Condensed knowledge




Lessons learned, MEDIA


10 relevant GK containers  

Golden Knowledge (GK) Juice



4. WIRED, Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Deal Is a Move Toward the Post-Console World
  • Microsoft is betting on a future more focused on games than hardware.
  • MICROSOFT’S WAR CHEST is a dynamo. With revenues that rival the GDP of a small nation, it’s got enough cash on hand to buy whatever it wants. When it does, it just acquires another money-making machine. Its latest gadget? Video game company Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft announced yesterday it was buying for a staggering $68.7 billion—more than the $26.2 billion it paid for LinkedIn in 2016, almost 10 times the $7.5 billion it paid for Bethesda's parent ZeniMax Media last year. Microsoft now owns Call of Duty and Halo; it owns The Elder Scrolls and World of Warcraft. It owns Candy Crush. It also owns Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, and StarCraft. Its chest is full—but not with machines.
  • It’s tempting to view the acquisition as the latest shot fired in the console wars, a ploy to use Activision Blizzard’s deep catalog to sell Xboxes. But that would be shortsighted. If anything, the deal shows that Microsoft is far more concerned with acquiring gamers—it’ll gain 400 million monthly active players as part of the deal—than with moving units.


5. TechCrunch, Why Microsoft’s $2T+ market cap makes its $68B Activision buy a cheap bet
  • Even though consumer gaming constitutes a small fraction of its overall business, Microsoft’s announcement yesterday of its all-cash $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard proves that the technology corporation takes the sector plenty seriously.
  • It is easy to think that Microsoft should have invested the money into other, perhaps more lucrative businesses in its portfolio. But with a market cap just over $2 trillion (a number so large it’s hard to wrap your head around), Microsoft has vast resources to invest in the most logical parts of its business.
  • Even if this $70 billion bet doesn’t pay out, Microsoft will come out on the other side fairly unscathed. That kind of financial power gives a company myriad options, even if it involves making one of the largest acquisitions in tech history.


6. Yahoo!news, Reuters, World Bank chief takes swipe at Microsoft's $69 billion gaming deal as poor countries struggle
  • World Bank President David Malpass on Wednesday criticized Microsoft's $69 billion takeover of gaming developer Activision Blizzard as a questionable allocation of capital at a time when poor countries are struggling to restructure debts and fight COVID-19 and poverty.
  • He said he was struck by the scale of Microsoft's acquisition deal for "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard. This dwarfed the $23.5 billion in cash contributions agreed in December by wealthier donor countries to the International Development Association, the World Bank's fund for the poorest countries -- about $8 billion annually over three years, he said.
  • "You have to wonder: 'Wait a minute, is this the best allocation of capital?'" Malpass said of the Microsoft deal. "This goes to the bond market. You know, a huge amount of (capital) flows are going to the bond market."


7. Le Monde, Microsoft, avec le rachat record d’Activision, rebat les cartes dans le jeu vidéo
  • Le groupe a annoncé son intention de débourser 68,7 milliards de dollars pour s’offrir le studio qui a produit notamment « Call of Duty » et « World of Warcraft ». Il deviendrait ainsi le troisième acteur du marché, après Tencent et Sony.
  • Ce rachat constitue le plus important jamais opéré par le géant de Redmond, loin devant celui qui l’a conduit à s’approprier le réseau social professionnel LinkedIn, pour plus de 26 milliards de dollars, en 2016.
  • En annonçant le rachat d’Activision, Satya Nadella a rappelé ses ambitions dans le secteur, constatant que le jeu vidéo était, avec 3 milliards d’utilisateurs, « la plus grande forme de divertissement et celle qui se développe le plus vite », avec une prédiction à 4,5 milliards de consommateurs en 2030. Sa réflexion ne date pas d’hier. C’est à son arrivée que Microsoft a acquis Minecraft. Surtout, c’est sous son égide que s’est opéré, en 2021, le rachat du studio Zenimax – avec ses jeux populaires Fallout, Doom, Wolfenstein – pour 7,5 milliards de dollars.


Some relevant characteristics of this "genioux fact"

  • Category 2: The Big Picture of the Digital Age
  • [genioux fact deduced or extracted from Media]
  • This is a “genioux fact fast solution.”
  • Tag Opportunities those travelling at high speed on GKPath
  • Type of essential knowledge of this “genioux fact”: Essential Analyzed Knowledge (EAK).
  • Type of validity of the "genioux fact". 

    • Inherited from sources + Supported by the knowledge of one or more experts + Supported by research.


References


“genioux facts”: The online programme on MASTERING “THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE”, g-f(2)836, Fernando Machuca, January 19, 2022, blog.geniouxfacts.com, geniouxfacts.com, Genioux.com Corporation.


ABOUT THE AUTHORS


PhD with awarded honors in computer science in France

Fernando is the director of "genioux facts". He is the entrepreneur, researcher and professor who has a disruptive proposal in The Digital Age to improve the world and reduce poverty + ignorance + violence. A critical piece of the solution puzzle is "genioux facts". The Innovation Value of "genioux facts" is exceptional for individuals, companies and any kind of organization.




Key “genioux facts”


  • Some relevant and recent "genioux facts" from the g-f golden knowledge pyramid to master the big picture of the digital age. 
    1. g-f(2)835 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/19/2022), The New York Times, Millions Have Lost a Step Into the Middle Class, Researchers Say
    2. g-f(2)834 THE NEW WORLD (1/19/2022), WSJ + Media, Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Deal to Power Its Netflix-of-Gaming Aspirations
    3. g-f(2)833 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/19/2022), INSEAD Knowledge, What Distinguishes the Super Rich From the Rest of Us
    4. g-f(2)832 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/19/2022), HBR, How Digital Transformation Can Improve Hospitals’ Operational Decisions
    5. g-f(2)831 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/18/2022), Talks at Google, Dorie Clark | How to Be a Long Term Thinker in a Short Term World
    6. g-f(2)830 The New World (1/18/2022), TechXplore, Controlling complex systems with Artificial Intelligence
    7. g-f(2)829 The New World (1/18/2022), Forbes, 3 Ways That Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Change Your Job Forever
    8. g-f(2)828 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/18/2022), HBR, When Lower Intensity Leads to Higher Results
    9. g-f(2)827 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/17/2022), HBR, Research: How Entrepreneurship Can Revitalize Local Communities
    10. g-f(2)826 The New World (1/17/2022), Bloomberg, France Gets its 25th Tech Unicorn, Reaching Macron’s Goal Early
    11. g-f(2)825 The New World (1/17/2022), Forbes, 14 Ways To Leverage AI To Better Connect With Customers
    12. g-f(2)824 The New World (1/17/2022), Venture Beat, How AI will drive the hybrid work environment
    13. g-f(2)823 The New World (1/17/2022), Forbes, How To Close More Deals With Artificial Intelligence
    14. g-f(2)822 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/16/2022), geniouxfacts, The 10 most read "genioux facts" of the month
    15. g-f(2)821 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/16/2022), geniouxfacts, The 10 most read "genioux facts" of the week
    16. g-f(2)820 The New World (1/15/2022), Venture Beat, How AI and language intelligence are helping employees learn
    17. g-f(2)819 The New World (1/15/2022), MIT SMR, Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation
    18. g-f(2)818 The New World (1/14/2022), Thomas M. Siebel, Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in an Era of Mass Extinction
    19. g-f(2)817 The New World (1/14/2022), HBR Analytical Services, Keys to Successful Innovation through Artificial Intelligence
    20. g-f(2)816 The New World (1/14/2022), HBR Analytic Services, AWS, AWS perspective: AI have the potential to transform nearly every industry
    21. g-f(2)815 The New World (1/14/2022), WEF, Artificial intelligence: What the C-suite needs to know
    22. g-f(2)814 The New World (1/14/2022), Analytics Insight, 10 WAYS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD IN 2022
    23. g-f(2)813 The New World News (1/13/2022), WSJ, These TikTok Stars Made More Money Than Many of America’s Top CEOs
    24. g-f(2)812 The New World (1/13/2022), Brookings, How countries are leveraging computing power to achieve their national artificial intelligence strategies
    25. g-f(2)811 The New World (1/13/2022), Bloomberg, TSMC to Spend at Least $40 Billion to Address Chip Shortages
    26. g-f(2)810 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/12/2022), Talks at Google, Bruce Hood | How Minds are Constructed
    27. g-f(2)809 THE NEW WORLD (1/12/2022), geniouxfacts, 10 juices of ultra-condensed GK to keep pace
    28. g-f(2)808 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (1/12/2022), MIT SMR + BCG, AI in the Supply Chain: Cold Chain Technologies’ Ranjeet Banerjee
    29. g-f(2)807 THE NEW WORLD (1/11/2022), HBR, Finding Success Starts with Finding Your Purpose
    30. g-f(2)806 The New World (1/11/2022), HBR, HBR’s Most-Read Research Articles of 2021
    31. g-f(2)805 The New World (1/11/2022), msn money, The National, Artificial intelligence to influence top tech trends in major way in next five years
    32. g-f(2)804 The New World (1/11/2022), MIT SMR, Six Ways Leaders Can Adapt to the Workplace of 2022
By
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Featured "genioux fact"

g-f(2)3127 Mastering the Big Picture: A Three-Month Journey Through the Digital Age

  Your guide to understanding the evolution of digital transformation knowledge genioux Fact post by  Fernando Machuca  and  Claude Introduc...

Popular genioux facts, Last 30 days