Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion

An awful stench is said to have engulfed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s multi-million quid US mansion.

a new Las Vegas residency. Always bringing a sense of comedy and eccentricity to her art, she lives to entertain and always seems to be having a good time while doing it! Enter an ever-dashing knight in shining armor: Orlando Bloom, 45, known for his epic portrayals of heroes, swordsmen and archers in some of the biggest modern-day classics to hit the silver screen. To say the pair is a power couple is an understatement — and with an engagement and a new child, it’s clear that the duo is thinking of building their empire for the long-term.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterEsports is the biggest opportunity in TV that nobody’s talking about — yet.That’s the view from video game industry veterans who see esports — or the exploding world of live video gaming competitions, complete with crowds of virtual fans cheering them on — as poised to explode in the coming years.Riot Games and Activision Blizzard are among the gaming giants making big investments to juice the burgeoning market for esports TV rights deals. A new round of consolidation and fresh capital coming into gaming, as evidenced by Microsoft’s pending $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, will raise the stakes, as esports content is a clear growth engine for gaming.“We don’t necessarily see obstacles in front of us — we see opportunity,” Brandon Snow, head of Activision Blizzard esports, tells Variety.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said that he doesn’t believe its acquisition of Activision Blizzard should be blocked by the US Federal Trade Commission.The deal, worth around £50billion, was announced on January 18 but earlier this week it was announced that the US Federal Trade Commission would be conducting an antitrust investigation after fears the acquisition would harm competition.Talking to the Financial Times, Nadella said that the deal would only place Microsoft as the third largest player in the video games industry behind Sony and Tencent. He also believes the fragmentation of the market would prevent it from ever gaining a monopoly.“At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of what’s the category we’re talking about, and what about the market structure?” said Nadella.“Even post-this acquisition, we will be number three with a low teens (market) share, where even the highest player is also in the teens (for market) share.

Activision Blizzard has announced more Warcraft and World Of Warcraft is coming, some of which in the form of mobile content.As part of the company’s fourth quarter earnings results, a handful of Warcraft announcements were made. This included news that “Blizzard is planning substantial new content for the Warcraft franchise in 2022, including new experiences in World Of Warcraft and Hearthstone, and getting all-new mobile Warcraft content into players’ hands for the first time.”There has been no other mention of what this content will be as of yet, but according to Activision Blizzard the franchise was going strong in 2021 thanks to the inclusion of both the modern and classic game.The company does also note that it “continued to increase our developer headcount in the fourth quarter and added hundreds of talented professionals in 2021,” despite the fact that major layoffs to the Raven Software quality assurance department took place at the end of last year.This led to a strike lasting over a month and the formation of a new union, the Game Workers Alliance, which Activision Blizzard appears to be actively attempting to quash at every turn.

Microsoft is to be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over their proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.News broke last month that Call of Duty and Overwatch developers Activision Blizzard were being acquired by Microsoft. But the deal isn’t actually set in stone yet, and now according to Bloomberg, the deal will see the FTC conduct an antitrust investigation over the Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Lionsgate’s feature take of Judy Blume’s classic Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret has been scheduled for Sept. 16 this year.

Katy Perry, 37, is embracing being a performer and mother at the same time and Orlando Bloom has a lot to do with it! The singer has been enjoying adding show dates to her residency in Las Vegas and her 45-year-old fiance has been making sure to assist in staying with her so they can raise their one-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove, together as she continues to wow audiences with her musical talent.

Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom! Ahead of the singer's appearance on this weekend, the engaged pair squeezed in a date night in New York City on Thursday at celebrity Italian staple Carbone. For their night out on the town, both stars put a fashionable foot forward, Bloom in a denim blue ensemble and Perry in head-to-toe camel corduroy, a stark change from the leather, oxblood-hued outfit and black fur coat she was photographed in while spotted in Midtown. And what would date night be without some romance? «Orlando is such a gentleman, he opened the doors for her, held her hand, and led her into and out of the restaurant,» an eyewitness told ET. «They still seem very much in the honeymoon phase!» While they are parents to 1-year-old daughter Daisy, the infant did not join them for dinner.

Sexy in red! Katy Perry sported a burgundy leather look on Thursday, Jan. 28, while out in NYC. The singer, who is currently rehearsing for her appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend, paired the corset top with matching same-colored pants, also wore a fluffy black fur coat with the look, accessorizing the look with pointed-toe black heels. The “I Kissed a Girl” songstress also wore her signature dark black hair long and lightly tousled for the outing.

Katy Perry is getting the support of fiance Orlando Bloom during her exciting weekend!

Blizzard studio head, Mike Ybarra, has told fans to “stay tuned” for more news on Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo.The news came via Twitter. When a Twitter user suggested that Blizzard should dedicate more of its time on existing products, Ybarra revealed more.In a tweet, Ybarra explained that “Blizzard is a big studio [with] talented and growing teams”. He continued by adding that “you’ll be hearing more on that from Warcraft and Overwatch“.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix shares — after dropping 30% over the past week — rose more than 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday after Bill Ackman, head of the Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund, disclosed that his firm had bought more than $1 billion worth of the streamer’s stock.Starting last Friday (Jan. 21) and over the next several days, Pershing acquired more than 3.1 million shares of Netflix, “making us a top-20 shareholder in the company,” Ackman wrote in a letter to the hedge fund’s investors.Click here to sign up for Variety’s free Strictly Business newsletter covering earnings, financial news, and more.The hedge fund scooped up the stake in Netflix after the stock took a nosedive following its fourth-quarter 2021 earnings report, in which it forecast a much smaller-than-expected subscriber gain in the first quarter of 2022 — fueling investor fears that the category leader was losing steam.

Jeezy is outnumbered! Jeannie Mai revealed on Tuesday, January 25, that her and the rapper’s newborn is a baby girl.

If you've already made your way through the new dramas which arrived shortly into the new year, look no further.