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Yves Guillemot, CEO and co-founder of Ubisoft, speaks at the Ubisoft Forward livestream event in Los Angeles, California, on June 12, 2023.

Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images

Shares of French game maker Ubisoft popped 9% in Europe trading Tuesday after Microsoft submitted a new deal for the takeover of Activision Blizzard to try and appease wary U.K. regulators.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority confirmed it blocked the original $69 billion deal that Microsoft first put forward in January 2022. The acquisition has also faced regulatory challenges in the U.S. and Europe, but the CMA has been the toughest critic of the takeover, citing concerns that the deal would hamper competition in the nascent cloud gaming market.

The CMA said Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have agreed to a new, restructured agreement, which the CMA will now investigate with a decision deadline of Oct. 18. As part of the new deal, Microsoft will not acquire cloud rights for existing Activision Blizzard PC and console games, or for new games released by Activision Blizzard during the next 15 years, the CMA said. Instead, these rights will be divested to Ubisoft before Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“The agreement provides Ubisoft with a unique opportunity to commercialize the distribution of games via cloud streaming,” Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said in a blog post. “The agreement will enable Ubisoft to innovate and encourage different business models in the licensing and pricing of these games on cloud streaming services worldwide.”

Ubisoft publishes popular games from the Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Far Cry franchises.

The restructured deal is intended to provide an independent third party with the ability to offer Activision Blizzard’s gaming content to all cloud gaming service providers, including Microsoft itself. Ubisoft offers cloud games on services like Amazon Luna and Nvidia‘s GeForce Now, which compete with Microsoft’s Xbox streaming service.

Smith said Ubisoft will compensate Microsoft through a “one-off payment” and a “market-based wholesale pricing mechanism” that includes pricing options based on usage.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.

Correction: Ubisoft publishes the Assassin’s Creed game franchise. An earlier version misspelled the name of the franchise.

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Chinese tech giant Tencent posts 13% revenue jump as growth at key gaming unit surges

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May 14, 2025

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Chinese tech giant Tencent posts 13% revenue jump as growth at key gaming unit surges

Chinese tech company Tencent is a gaming giant and the parent company of WeChat, the ubiquitous social messaging app in China.

Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tencent on Wednesday reported an annual rise in its top and bottom line in the first quarter fuelled by accelerated growth in its key gaming business.

While revenue beat expectations, its net profit fell short.

Here’s how Tencent did in the first quarter of 2025 versus LSEG estimates:

  • Revenue: 180.02 billion Chinese yuan ($25 billion), versus 174.63 billion yuan expected
  • Net profit: 47.8 billion yuan, versus 52.2 billion yuan expected

Revenue rose 13% year-on-year, while net profit was up 14%.

This breaking news story is being updated.

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Sony shares rise about 2% in volatile trading following share buyback announcement

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May 14, 2025

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Sony shares rise about 2% in volatile trading following share buyback announcement

A file photo of Hiroki Totoki, Sony Group Corporation executive, delivering a keynote address at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, on January 6, 2025. 

Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Sony Group shares rose about 2% Wednesday in volatile trading after the Japanese conglomerate announced a 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) share buyback and operating income beat estimates.   

Operating income for the last three months of the financial year came in at 203.6 billion yen, beating mean analyst estimates of 192.2 billion yen, though it was down 11% from the same period last year. 

In the earnings report, the Japanese-based electronics, entertainment and finance company announced a stock buyback of shares worth 250 billion yen. 

Sony also provided details on a partial spinoff of its financial unit. The company plans to distribute slightly more than 80% of the shares of common stock of the spinoff to shareholders of Sony Group through dividends. 

The financial unit will list its financial operation this year and will be classified as a discontinued operation in Sony’s accounting from the current quarter, the company added. 

However, Sony’s outlook for the current financial year ending in March was lackluster.

The company forecasted its operating profit to rise a slight 0.3% to 1.28 trillion yen, after flagging a 100 billion yen hit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Yet, Sony clarified that the estimated tariff impact did not reflect the trade deal made between the U.S. and China on May 12 and that the actual impact could vary significantly. 

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Samsung Electronics to acquire heating and cooling solutions provider FläktGroup for 1.5 billion euros

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May 14, 2025

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Samsung Electronics to acquire heating and cooling solutions provider FläktGroup for 1.5 billion euros

A Samsung Group flag flutters in front of the company’s Seocho building in Seoul. 

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced that it would acquire all shares of German-based FläktGroup, a leading heating and cooling solutions provider, for 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion) from European investment firm Triton. 

Samsung said the acquisition would help it expand in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning business as the market experiences rapid growth. 

“Our commitment is to continue investing in and developing the high-growth HVAC business as a key future growth engine,” said TM Roh, Acting Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics.  

The acquisition of FläktGroup stands to bolster Samsung’s position in the HVAC market against rivals such as LG Electronics. 

FläktGroup supplies heating, HVAC solutions to a wide range of buildings and facilities, notably data centers which require a high degree of stable cooling. Samsung said it anticipates sustained growth in data center demand due to the proliferation of generative AI, robotics, autonomous driving and other technologies.

FläktGroup has more 60 major customers, including leading pharmaceutical companies, biotech and food and beverage firms, and gigafactories, according to Samsung’s statement.

Samsung said in March that its HVAC solutions had achieved double-digit annual revenue growth over the past five years, and that the company aimed to boost revenue by more than 30% in 2025.

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