In January 2022, Microsoft announced its acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The deal would make Microsoft the world’s third largest video game company, but it also exposes the company to several risks.
First, the all-cash deal would require Microsoft to use a large portion of its cash reserves. Second, the acquisiti ... Show More
Jul 21
How a Museum Marketing Team Used AI to Bring People Closer to Art
In 2025, Harvard Art Museums considered using generative AI in a marketing campaign to increase visitor engagement and membership. Looking to boost attendance and appeal to a younger audience base, and facing intensified competition for leisure time, the Museums’ marketing team e ... Show More
26m 42s
Jul 7
Are We Entering a New Age of Creativity with the Help of AI?
In March 2024, The Atlantic announced a strategic content and product partnership with artificial intelligence giant OpenAI. OpenAI would license The Atlantic’s content to train its models and respond to user queries, while The Atlantic would receive a fee, privileged access to O ... Show More
29m 48s
Jun 23
How School of Rock Created Structure in Order to Scale with Agility and Creativity
In the summer of 2021, School of Rock was a youth-oriented music education company with 291 franchise- and company-owned schools globally. Before Rob Price became CEO in 2017, School of Rock’s nonconformist culture led to variability in teaching styles, educational outcomes, and ... Show More
37m 15s
Oct 2024
Activision Blizzard: What Microsoft Got for $69 Billion
Last year, Microsoft closed its takeover of Activision Blizzard, the maker of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Candy Crush. In the months that followed, interest rates rose, expectations changed, and Microsoft Gaming eliminated 8% of its workforce.
Jason Schreier is the author of Pla ... Show More
36m 47s
Jan 2022
Business Weekly: 22/01/2022
On this edition of Business Weekly, we look at the gaming industry’s biggest deal so far, as Microsoft stumps up nearly $69bn to buy Activision Blizzard, the company behind mega-games including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. We hear how Microsoft wants to increase its slice ... Show More
50m 16s
Oct 2023
How Microsoft bagged Activision Blizzard
<p>In the 1990s, Microsoft was seen as a tech industry bully. Once viewed as combative and ruthless in the eyes of regulators, the company underwent an image makeover in the decades since. Now, the FT’s Richard Waters explains how Microsoft’s transformation pushed their $75bn acq ... Show More
19m 3s