The U.S. government wants a word with Barry Diller, David Geffen and a third man involving the planned $68.7 billion merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard
that none of the three men had private information about the looming merger. “It was simply a lucky bet,” he told the paper. “We acted on no information of any kind from anyone. It is one of those coincidences.”
The option buys were arranged privately through JPMorgan Chase — which, as part of a 2020 criminal settlement over market-manipulation claims, was required to report the trades to law enforcement after the merger deal was made public on January 18. The all-cash merger deal, the largest transaction in Microsoft’s history, will vault the company to the No. 3 spot among all global video game companies by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. At $95 per share, the deal represents a 45% premium on last Friday’s closing price of Activision Blizzard stock. The latter’s various divisions make games including