Microsoft acquires Blizzard Activision
Microsoft will acquire the gaming titan for $68.7 bn. Activision’s shares skyrocketed during pre-market trading, up by almost 40%. This is an all-cash deal that will become Microsoft’s greatest buy so far and it also means they will gain access to Activision’s 400 million monthly gaming users with the opportunity to cross promote each other’s current line of games.
Activision has many important gaming titles such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and not to forget the mobile heavyweight Candy Crush. However, their shares have gone down about 27% since July, due to a sexual harassment lawsuit. So far, 37 employees have been fired and another 44 have been disciplined by the accused company. Since then, the company has agreed on a new zero-tolerance harassment policy and have announced their commitment to increasing their female and non-binary employees.
A fifth of Activision’s employees have signed a petition to get the CEO Bobby Kotick to resign. This was mainly because the CEO had been accused of downplaying the severity of the company’s culture problems along with other executives. A small controversy has arisen since Microsoft payed 45% above the share market price which was a huge win for Kotick and Activision’s investors.
Microsoft has been expanding its gaming assets in order to compete with Sony and now Facebook. The latest has become a threat to the software company since they are betting on building the “metaverse”, a virtual world that now focus heavily on gaming. Experts say it will not be long for this new universe to expand and bring new activities online. Microsoft has acquired Bethesda for $7.5 billion last year. As with this acquisition, the long-term goal is for their gaming platform, X-box, to expand their exclusive game roster.
China’s Birth Rate drops to a new record low
This is the fifth consecutive year in which China records a new low in their childbirth. Since the beginning of Communist China in 1949 the country had never seen numbers this low. The government has made efforts in order to reverse this trend unsuccessfully, all to amend a future demographic crisis. The number of births last year barely outnumbered deaths. China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that China had 7.5 births per 1000 people, that is 10.62 million births last year.
The head of the National Bureau of Statistics, Ning Jizhe identified the main reasons for this decline in births. “A continued decline in fertility, changes in attitude towards childbearing and delays of marriage by young people” said the government official. The pandemic was also mentioned as one factor. Experts predict that if the trend continues, China’s population may start shrinking soon.
But among other factors, there is the polarizing one-child policy which resulted in a decrease in their workforce since the older generation aged without being replaced by a newer one in the same quantity. Since 2015 the two-child policy was instated but without much effect leaving authorities without options. Hence last year’s the three-child policy. Ning Jizhe also mentioned that last year’s births from second children accounted for 43% of the total of births, which makes the expected results for the three-child policy to be positive.
Women choose not to get pregnant since companies are not known for being accommodating and despite the recent increases in maternity leave, women are not yet convinced. Surveys showed that another factor for this trend is the increase in property prices and education costs. One last factor is the discrimination against women which resulted in a disproportionate ratio between both sexes: with fewer women, fewer babies.
Sources: CNN, The Economist.
Tonga Tsunami
The natural disaster caused the death of three people, polluted water, cancellation of flights and the destruction of homes. Ash fallout is another reason of concern, it has delayed aid efforts. It has created a 2 cm. coat of ash all over the main island. The eruption of the volcano has impacted more than 80% of Tonga’s population. The volcano has erupted continuously for many years according to experts.
A ship reported that three islands in Tonga were the most affected due to the magnitude of the waves created by the eruption. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said, “Most of the structures and dwellings on those islands have been completely destroyed.” The islands of Mango, Fonoifua and Nomuka need evacuation, water and food urgently. Another priority is the reestablishment of communications. The only fiber-optic cable that connected Tonga was damaged and the repair is expected to take weeks.
Another preoccupation is Covid-19 since Tonga has not reported a single local case until now, the only case reported was from a New Zealand traveler in October last year. Relief providers will have to be careful and precautious to avoid adding another problem to the population. Nearly 70% have had one dose of the vaccine.
Help was sent by New Zealand in the form of two ships, one filled with 250,000 liters of water along with a desalination plant capable of producing 70,000 more liters of water per day. The other ship is carrying a team of people that will work on disaster control. Both the airport and dock are expected to be functional within days.
One year in office for Joe Biden
Joe Biden commented about his year in office on a press conference. As he completes one year in office, a lot of his supporters are concerned about the next presidential election, the damage to the Democratic Party and if Biden is suited to run for office again due to his age. The polls for the American president are discouraging. Six out of ten people disapprove the president’s take on fixing the economy and more than half do the same with his approach to dealing with the pandemic according to an NBC news poll.
The NBC news poll also showed that only 5% of people think that Biden’s presidency was better than expected and 36% say it was worse than expected. 51% of the population gave him the lowest scores on being competent and effective, being able to handle a crisis and on uniting the country.
Covid-19 was one of the main reasons for disapproval of President Biden. “We went from 2 million people being vaccinated at the moment I was sworn in to 210 million Americans being fully vaccinated” he said on Wednesday. On the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, he mentioned that Russia will be held accountable if they decide to invade depending on how much damage they cause. He was also asked about his plans about reelection, he answered that he expects to run for the 2024 election as well as keeping Kamala Harris as his Vice-President.
The economy has made progress under Biden, employment rates improved with new 6.4 million additional jobs added last year. However, inflation at the end of 2021 was at the highest since 1990. Experts mention that the way the economy “rebounded” so quickly, caused supply chains to be unable to cope with such an increase in demand.
Sources: TheGuardian, BBC.