Activision-Blizzard’s stock hit its highest price point in nearly two years earlier today, signaling a full recovery for a company that had previously struggled on the market.
The stock has been trending upward throughout 2022 and 2023, largely thanks to the ongoing acquisition process of the company by Microsoft. And today, it finally got back to its previous heights, hitting a price total of $94.30.
Upon market open, that trend continued in a positive direction for Activision-Blizzard, who came one step closer to finalizing a deal with Microsoft. The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which had previously blocked the merger due to concerns over cloud gaming, is set to push the updated deal—which removes Microsoft’s acquisition of Blizzard’s cloud gaming branch—across the table.
This section of the deal was the biggest concern for the CMA, and in the revised version of the merger, Activision’s cloud gaming efforts are being diversified via a separate sale to Ubisoft. This spreading-out of markets combats feelings of antitrust violations that the Authority previously maintained.
“The CMA originally found that Microsoft already has a strong position in cloud gaming services and could have used its control over Activision content to stifle competition and reinforce this position,” the Competition and Markets Authority said in a statement. “The new deal instead results in the cloud streaming rights for Activision’s games being transferred to an independent player, Ubisoft, maintaining open competition as the market for cloud gaming develops over the coming years.”
In November 2021, Activision-Blizzard stock plummeted to below the $60 mark, with the company being marred by a combination of game delays and sexual abuse scandals, the latter of which soiled the Blizzard brand in the eyes of the gaming community for a moment. After rectifying mistakes by altering positions of leadership and removing references to guilty parties in its games, Activision-Blizzard has been (slowly but surely) making an effort to get back into the good graces of players.
The stock wasn’t on life support for too long, though. Just eight weeks after hitting a record low in November 2021, news of the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft broke, and its price shot back up from $65 to $81 in the span of one week. Since that point, a modest trend for Acti-Blizz has been taking place, full of slides and respective recoveries.
Now, after getting the hurdle of its 52-week high out of the way, Activision-Blizzard’s stock can get back to its original goal of trouncing its all-time high of $101.60, which was set in February 2021, shortly after the company set record sales figures and player counts with the release of World of Warcraft Shadowlands.
