Microsoft sets record for biggest tech deal ever, topping Dell-EMC merger in 2016

▤ Summary

Microsoft tried to set a record in 2008, when then-CEO Steve Ballmer pursued plans to buy Yahoo for about $50 billion. Yahoo was getting trounced by Google in internet search and ultimately ended up selling for $4.5 billion to Verizon in 2017. On Tuesday, Microsoft said its buying video game publisher Activision Blizzard for almost $69 billion, a price that would narrowly eclipse the richest U.S. tech deal in history. Two recent mega-deals in the semiconductor industry — Nvidias effort to buy Arm and AMDs agreement to purchase Xilinx — have both been held up in regulatory review for over a year. But Nadella, who succeeded Ballmer as Microsoft CEO in 2014, has the capital to spend and an investor base thats urging him to be aggressive.

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