MICROSOFT Corp.’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. is breaking all sorts of records, even for a company that hasn’t shied away from massive deals in recent years. The U.S. tech giant announced Tuesday it’s paying nearly US$69 billion to take over Activision, owner of the Call of Duty franchise. That’s roughly equal to the amount Microsoft set aside for its five largest past acquisitions combined, including the US$26 billion LinkedIn Corp. deal in 2016. Last year, Microsoft also offered US$19.6 billion to buy speech technology company Nuance Communications Inc., following a US$7.5 billion deal for video game maker Zenimax Media Inc. Previous large deals include the US$8.5 billion acquisition of Skype Inc. in 2011, as well as the US$7.5 billion purchase of GitHub Inc. in 2018. Buying Activision will eat away at a big chunk of Microsoft’s cash pile, which stood at US$131 billion at the end of September, though its outlay represents but a sliver of its current US$2.3 trillion market value. Few companies have the balance sheet to pull off such a deal. (SD-Agencies) | 