Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard is big news, but there are a lot of other changes happening. Let’s dive in.

First, let’s start with the numbers: this $67.8 billion acquisition isn’t just the biggest in Microsoft’s history---and by far---it’s the biggest in tech industry history. The next closest was Dell’s (and Silver Lake’s) acquisition of EMC for $67 billion in 2015. To date, Microsoft’s biggest acquisitions are LinkedIn ($26.2 billion, 2016), Nuance ($19 billion, 2021), Skype ($8.5 billion, 2011), GitHub ($7.5 billion, 2018), Bethesda ($7.5 billion, 2021), and Nokia ($7.2 billion, 2014).