Minecraft acquisition by Microsoft could be announced Monday – report

By Stephany Nunneley

Microsoft is said to be announcing its acquisition of Minecraft on Monday, according to a Reuters report.

According to the report the deal will go through somewhere around the $2.5 billion, which is a bit larger than previous estimates, and analysis feel the deal as more to do with Microsoft trying to flesh out its mobile strategy than beef up IP for its Xbox consoles.

“We don’t view this acquisition as a signal of Microsoft’s intent to double down on Xbox but consider it an attempt to better address mobile on a cross-platform basis,” said Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund. “This also appears to be consistent with CEO Satya Nadella’s mobile and cloud strategy.”

Reports earlier this week claimed Monjang founder Markus Persson was the one to reach out to Microsoft regarding the deal and that Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Persson have a “close relationship” with the former flying to Sweden on more than on occasion to have dinner with the Minecraft creator.

The earlier source also stated Microsoft would “keep Minecraft available for rival products,” for the time being but not to expect future games to be released on rival platforms.