You might know Activision Blizzard as the mega-publisher behind huge franchises like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. And you might know King as the mobile publisher behind Candy Crush Saga, the Bejeweled clone that's inexplicably become one of the most popular casual games on the planet. In a few months the two companies will be one and the same: Activision Blizzard has announced its intention to acquire King for a staggering $5.9 billion.
For comparison, that's approximately six times what Facebook famously paid to acquire mobile photo sharing app Instagram. Activision currently has practically zero presence on the mobile game front with the notable exception of free-to-play collectible card game Hearthstone, while King's various games across Android, iOS, Windows, and web platforms have amassed hundreds of millions of downloads and billions of dollars in revenue from in-app purchases.
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