Prior to setting its sights on Activision Blizzard,Microsoftattempted to acquire Zynga, one of the largest mobile game developers on the planet. This revelation emerged during the second day of the preliminary injunction hearing on theFTC’s attempt at blocking Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Founded in 2007, Zynga was one of the ten largest mobile game developers on the planet as of 2021, when it reported $2.8 billion in revenue. Shortly thereafter,Grand Theft AutopublisherTake-Two Interactive acquired Zyngato the tune of $12.7 billion. The cash-and-stock deal, completed in May 2022, is still the largest acquisition in the gaming industry’s history, although Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buyout would exceed it 5.5 times over if approved.
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During a June 23 hearing in front of a San Francisco federal court, Xbox Head Phil Spencer revealed Microsoft tried buying Zynga before the California-based company was ultimately acquired by Take-Two. Speaking under oath, Spencer said that the talks with Zynga took “quite a bit of time.” And while he didn’t elaborate on that point, Microsoft’s public court filings from a day earlier included an email from Xbox CFO Tim Stuart to Senior Finance Director Jamie Lawver whose subject line included a mention of a “Zynga strategy approval.” Its contents are omitted from the public docket for the case, but the fact that the email is dated May 30, 2025, impliesMicrosofthad been in talks to acquire Zynga for months before Take-Two agreed to do so in January 2022.
Although the timeline of the acquisition could suggest that Take-Two beat Microsoft to the punch, Spencer said the tech giant itself dropped the idea after deciding it wanted something “even bigger than Zynga” to kickstart its foray into mobile gaming. It subsequently set its sights on Activision Blizzard, the owner ofCandy Crushmaker King, as per Spencer’s testimony. This isn’t the first occasion whereon the company’s leadership suggested that the ABK deal is primarily mobile-motivated, asMicrosoft has been claiming that Activision Blizzard games aren’t must-have titlesfor nearly a year by now.
That sentiment was repeatedly expressed during Microsoft’s ongoing back-and-forth with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which rejected its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard back in April, some four months after the FTC sued to block the deal. Regardless of whether the legal argument that the acquisition is primarily motivated by the company’s mobile ambitions ends up being enough to push it over the finish line,Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal could currently be facing its third blockin just as many months.
