? Acquisition
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Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has entered into an agreement to acquire San Francisco-based esports tournaments and events organizer Smash.gg for an undisclosed sum.
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With this partnership, Smash.gg will surely increase its audience and get direct access to Microsoft’s resources, while Microsoft will further expand its services offering to the gamers community by adding Smash.gg solutions to the Microsoft Content Services division.
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Microsoft will further expand its gaming and esports assets, putting Smash.gg alongside XBOX platform and MSN esports franchise. The company will work independently, providing its audience with tools for self-service event organization. Probably, with that acquisition, Microsoft is taking another step to creating a full-scale gaming ecosystem
? Products
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Smash.gg is a free esports tournament and events organization platform, that currently supports over 6,000 event organizers across a wide spectrum of different games, giving its users a set of tools for event management, payments and analytics. The number of event participants can vary from 16 to thousands of people
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To date, Smash.gg has raised over $14m with the most recent $11m Series A round in 2017
? Microsoft’s Latest M&A Activity
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In September 2020, Microsoft entered into an agreement to acquire Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5B, bringing the team of more than 2,300 employees on board
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Apart from the ZeniMax deal, Microsoft has had 7 acquisitions In 2020, though none of them were directly related to video games
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In June 2019, the company had its latest gaming acquisition, buying Double Fine Productions, a studio behind Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, and Brutal Legend, among many others
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In 2018, Microsoft announced several acquisitions:
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In November — Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment
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In June — Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs and Compulsion Games
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In January — a provider for cloud-connected gaming PlayFab
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SOURCES: GAMESINDUSTRY, WINDOWSCENTRAL
