Shares in Sony have lost 13% of their value as traders at the Tokyo Stock Exchange reacted to news of Microsoft's plans to acquire Activision Blizzard. (H/T Bloomberg)
This is the largest stock price drop for Sony since it was forced to recall 100,000 laptop batteries because they were a fire hazard in October 2008. In total, Sony lost $20 billion in market value as a result of the drop. This is despite Sony's consistent lead in sales and exclusive games over Microsoft in the last several console generations.
Sony stock closed -12.79% or -US$20 billion in terms of market cap in Tokyo (where it's already Wednesday).
That is more than what Take-Two is worth right now.
Total overreaction of course, but gaming tends to emotionalize investors in strange ways.
— Dr. Serkan Toto / Kantan Games Inc. (@serkantoto) January 19, 2022
And that's not all the massive Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal has done to shake up the market. Square Enix, Capcom and Konami each saw their stock price rise 5%, and Ubisoft's price jumped up 11% as investors looked to get in on what they think will be Microsoft's next big acquisition.
Because Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard at $95 per share — about 45% more than each share was worth prior to the announcement — shareholders can expect a significant windfall from the deal when it's finalized in 2023.
