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Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) shares edged into positive territory in after-hours trading Monday after the videogame publisher reported strong growth in bookings as more drama emerged regarding its potential acquisition by Microsoft (MSFT).
Activision (ATVI) said that for the quarter ending December 31, it reported bookings of $3.57B, up from $2.49B in the fourth quarter of 2021. Wall Street analysts had expected Activision (ATVI) to report bookings of $3.08B. For videogame publishers such as Activision (ATVI) order bookings are seen as a key measure of a company’s business health.
The company also reported earnings of $1.87 a share, excluding one-time items, compared earnings of $1.25 a share in the prior-year period.
Activision (ATVI) said it had 389M monthly active users during the quarter, up from 371M such users a year ago.
The latest version of the company’s bellwether title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, was one of Activision’s (ATVI) highlights of the quarter, as the company said the game had “the highest-opening sell through” in history of the franchise.
Activision (ATVI) has been in the process of being acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) in an all-cash deal worth $69B. The company said it had no further details to about the deal, other than the plan is for the deal to close by the end of Microsoft’s (MSFT) current fiscal year in June.
However, on Monday, Activision (ATVI) shares fell almost 5% on a report that Microsoft (MSFT) expected the United Kingdom’s antitrust regulator to opposed the acquisition.
