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Microsoft and Activision Blizzard: The Rise of the Video Gaming Giant
Get PDFSatya Nadella, appointed CEO of Microsoft since February 2014, envisioned Microsoft at the forefront of the video gaming competition. In September of that year, Nadella led the company in the acquisition of video-gaming publisher Mojang, popular for its world-building game Minecraft, for 68.7 billion valuation after net cash adjustments. The final value was $75.4 billion, and the deal was concluded on October 13, 2023. In comparison, the acquisition dwarfs Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang, which was considered a pivotal move at the time. Nadella and his team knew that acquisition of Mojang would prove to be fruitful for Microsoft’s gaming division. However, Activision had been stained by scandals and misconduct, with Activision employees urging its former CEO Bobby Kotick to resign amidst investigations into workplace harassment. In addition to culture problems at Activision, the rise in regulatory scrutiny among tech giants poses legal challenges for Microsoft to move forward in the video gaming industry. How can Microsoft continue to expand in the video gaming market in the face of legal obstacles
The relationship between financial constraints and investment efficiency
No full textThis study examines how financial constraints relate to firm-level investment efficiency. Prior research theorizes that corporate borrowing by issue of risky debt induces suboptimal capital investment spending. We extend this research to examine whether firm-level financial constraints and internal investment efficiency are significantly related. We measure firms’ degree of overall financial constraint following the procedure developed by Whited and Wu. Our results indicate that among highly financially constrained firms, overall financial constraints are positively associated with investment, and higher financial constraints are more likely to result in greater investment inefficiency. Furthermore, we find that this relationship is more prominent for companies with high free cash flow, high bankruptcy likelihood, and high growth potential. Our findings that financial constraints have significant influence on corporate investment efficiency should be of interest to company managers, investors, and regulators alike
Partisan Prejudice: The Role of Beliefs about the Unchanging Nature of Ideology and Partisans
Get PDFAlthough there is a tendency to think all forms of essentialism—the belief that characteristics are inherent and unchangeable—are similar, some theories suggest different foundations and outcomes. We investigated if belief systems about the stability of political ideology (trait essentialism) and the fundamental nature of partisans (social essentialism) predict prejudice in opposite ways and if they do so via differential relations with blame. Across six studies (N = 2,231), we found that the more people believe the trait of political ideology is fixed (trait essentialism), the more they think that Republicans and Democrats are inherently different (social essentialism). Crucially, despite this positive correlation, trait essentialism was negatively linked to partisan prejudice and social essentialism was positively linked. The essentialism to prejudice links were driven, in part, by differential associations with blame attributions. Media messaging robustly influenced both types of essentialist thinking, with implications for prejudice
Appoint Judge Ana de Alba to the Ninth Circuit
Get PDFThe United States Senate must rapidly appoint Eastern District of California Judge Ana de Alba to the Ninth Circuit. This appellate tribunal is a preeminent regional circuit, which faces substantial appeals, has the largest complement of jurists, and clearly includes a massive geographic expanse. The nominee, whom President Joe Biden designated in spring 2023, would offer remarkable gender, experiential, ideological, and ethnic diversity realized primarily from serving productively with the California federal district, and state trial, courts after rigorously litigating for one decade in a highly regarded private law firm. For over fifteen years, she deftly excelled in law’s upper echelon. The post which the judge could fill has been vacant for months. Thus, the Senate needs to promptly approve the well qualified, mainstream nominee