ATVI Stock Forecast: Activision Blizzard inches higher as investors prepare for earnings

NASDAQ: ATVI saw its recent skid snapped on Thursday as the video game maker looks to head into its earnings week with some positive momentum. Shares of ATVI gained 0.15% on Thursday and closed the trading session at $78.90. It was another bleak day for tech stocks as the NASDAQ tumbled a further 1.4% to extend its month-long decline to start the year. It was Activision Blizzard’s first positive day in six sessions since its acquisition by tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was first announced. Shares of Microsoft were up as well on Thursday, as the company rebounded nicely following a strong quarterly earnings report earlier this week. 

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The sudden acquisition of Activision Blizzard shows that Microsoft is serious about both the gaming industry and the Metaverse. While thus far most discussion of the Metaverse has been about companies like Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), but Microsoft’s backing has provided a whole new level of legitimacy. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard’s partnership will be one of the first implementations of the gaming industry in the Metaverse, and potentially a sign of things to come as big tech shifts its focus to this new iteration of the internet. 

Activision stock news

One part of the acquisition that has some Activision Blizzard shareholders unsettled is that the stock has not climbed anywhere near the $95 that Microsoft offered for the company. While it’s likely just short-term tech weakness that has suppressed Activision Blizzard’s share price, it is interesting to see how the market is viewing the deal. It is expected that the deal will not close until 2023, but usually in a takeover like this, the share price of the acquired company reaches the offered price.

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