Microsoft’s $70B Activision acquisition is all about the Metaverse 🕶; SoFi gets a bank charter 🏦; 30% of Bitcoin supply now underwater 🌊

Good Morning FinTech, January 20

Good morning Everyone,

And happy Thursday! The week is approaching an end - what a blast it was thus far! Today is not an exception as these 3 FinTech stories are massive:

Microsoft’s $70B Activision acquisition is all about the Metaverse 🕶

The deal💰 US tech giant Microsoft has announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard, a game development and interactive entertainment company.

Activision Blizzard makes hits like World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, and it will be bought for about $70 billion. 🤯 This is the largest all-cash acquisition in corporate history.

For the perspective, previously Microsoft’s biggest deal was its $26 billion LinkedIn buy. Shares of Activision spiked 26% yesterday, after slipping 27% since California regulators sued the company over employee harassment in July.

The impact & one but… 👉 If this acquisition goes through, Microsoft’s gaming business will become the 3rd largest in the world, being only after Tencent’sand Sony’s. Microsoft’s existing gaming biz (i.e. Xbox, Minecraft) brought in $15 billion last year, and its Xbox Game Pass monthly subscription now has 25 million subscribers. Expect this to grow significantly.

When it comes to but… It must be noted that antitrust scrutiny is more than expected here, and the regulators will sure express their opinion. Yet, Microsoft is reportedly so confident the deal will close, it’s agreed to pay a $3 billion cancellation fee if it falls through. Now that’s the level of confidence one should have!

But what does this mean for the bigger picture? It’s all about the Metaverse push. Here’s why👇🏼