Depends on the situation - who's doing the buying, who's getting got, and why.
But really, what's happened is pretty simple: Microsoft upped the ante of what the word "megaton" means. The Bethesda acquisition wasn't a megaton - it was a fucking supernova. And when the interstellar dust settled, Xbox fan bois were still giddy with console war joy. Over on team blue, suddenly Sony - who's been doing great work in games for decades without dropping billions on a publisher - needed an acquisition of that scale to "keep up". "Xbox has no exclusives" had been the battle cry of the blue bois for nearly a decade, and in one swift move Microsoft shut that down. So, they're still scrambling for some kind of "counter attack", as if suddenly Sony's current first party roster isn't up to the task of delivering quality games for the PS5.
So, because Microsoft have changed the definition of "big announcement", and green and blue bois are hungry for another supernova event to fuel the console war, every wanna be social media insider is going after easy clicks, propping up piss weak rumours as some kind of "big announcement". The fan bois get wind, and deduce: "the last big announcement was the Bethesda purchase, so this big announcement must be as big as that" and they're off to the races. Suddenly, Microsoft is buying SEGA, Steam, and EA. Sony are purchasing Square Enix, Konami and Activision Blizzard. Hundreds of billions in purchases and flying around - and not for sensible contributions to platform goals or business targets, but for "gotcha" moments. "Haha!" the fan bois cry. "If Sony buy Square Enix, you'll ever get Final Fantasy!". "Oh yeah!? If Microsoft buy Steam, they'll OWN PC Gaming!".
And meanwhile, the big announcements are "Dune skins in Fortnight next week" and "Blinx the Time Sweeper got FPS boosted".
Buckle up: we've got eight years until the end of the generation, and I suspect this bullshit will echo right till the very end.