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In 2014, Microsoft announced that it had reached a $2.5 billion deal to buy Mojang, the Swedish video game company behind Minecraft. At the time, the company said it aimed to increase enterprise use of GitHub while also bringing its own developer tools and services to new audiences. When the deal closed, Microsoft revealed that it had bought the company to enhance its focus on open-source development. GitHub, which functions as a code repository service, was founded just ten years earlier by Tom Preston-Werner, P. GitHub is a software development platform that Microsoft shelled out $7.5 billion in stock to buy in 2018. Microsoft also announced that the acquisition had allowed Microsoft's sales and distribution organization to reach LinkedIn's massive user base. When Microsoft bought LinkedIn, it stated that it aimed to integrate the social site with Microsoft's enterprise software suite. Nineteen years later, LinkedIn's core platform has over 753 million users and now boasts expanded features, including messaging, jobs and news. The site first launched in 2003 as a place to connect with co-workers and post digital resumes. Microsoft made headlines in 2016 after it paid $26 billion for LinkedIn, the professional social networking platform founded by Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Allen Blue and Eric Ly. Activision Blizzard's intellectual property and talent pool will also be crucial to expanding the company's nascent cloud-based video game streaming platform. Once part of Microsoft, the unit would fall under Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer's purview and further the company's booming gaming business.
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The tech giant kicked off 2022 by shelling out $68.7 billion to buy the video game company in a deal expected to close sometime in 2023. Activision BlizzardĪctivision Blizzard is Microsoft's most recent and most expensive acquisition. Keep reading to discover some of Microsoft's most expensive and impactful acquisitions and how they fall under its corporate umbrella.
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Microsoft's purchases have helped it grow beyond its origins as a computer software and hardware company and establish itself as a powerful player in the cloud, gaming, communications and augmented reality markets. The company, cofounded by Bill Gates in 1975, made its first acquisition in 1987 and hasn't slowed down, with approximately 269 deals under its belt to this day. Microsoft has become one of the world's most prestigious tech companies, but it didn't get there alone.
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