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Rumour: MS approach Valve for buyout $16b offer

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
needs to happen just for the ensuing hilarity

0*9Pio3Q-ZC1VkioWD.jpg

So I assume you hate video games then, huh?
 

Pejo

Member
I'd like to think that this would never happen, but I'm continually disappointed in humanity these days, so who knows.

I know Gabe isn't the sole owner of Valve, but I have faith that he wouldn't accept this just to have more money than he already does..
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
We ALL hope they'd never sell. Especially to MS.

Well if Gabe is considering retiring (he's 61), and the other shareholders want a heap of cash (the employees), you would think they would at least consider selling.
If not to MS, to anyone else in the market. Though I suspect the list of buyers is short with that kind of cash. I mean that would wipe out all Sony's cash reserves if they bought them. It's more than Nintendo has on hand.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Not gonna happen, but even if Valve's leadership would drastically change 16 billion seems like a really low number for a leading PC storefront with additional successes from its handheld device.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Not gonna happen, but even if Valve's leadership would drastically change 16 billion seems like a really low number for a leading PC storefront with additional successes from its handheld device.

From what I understand, they only sold 3 or 4 million steam decks. Love mine but I don't think the value hardware division is going to get anyone intersted in large profits that excited.
Nor do I think owning Half Life gets anyone that excited. So, ya, the storefront, which generates around 15 Billion a year in revenue, of which we know 70% goes to the game developers. So that leaves about 5 billion a year, minus costs on staff, overhead, servers, etc.
Not sure why 16 Billion wouldn't be a lot of money, depending on what the actual profit margins are.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
From what I understand, they only sold 3 or 4 million steam decks. Love mine but I don't think the value hardware division is going to get anyone intersted in large profits that excited.
Nor do I think owning Half Life gets anyone that excited. So, ya, the storefront, which generates around 15 Billion a year in revenue, of which we know 70% goes to the game developers. So that leaves about 5 billion a year, minus costs on staff, overhead, servers, etc.
Not sure why 16 Billion wouldn't be a lot of money, depending on what the actual profit margins are.
Activision made like 7 billion a year on gross revenue. Given how much MS paid, 16bl does sound very low
 
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reinking

Gold Member
From what I understand, they only sold 3 or 4 million steam decks. Love mine but I don't think the value hardware division is going to get anyone intersted in large profits that excited.
Nor do I think owning Half Life gets anyone that excited. So, ya, the storefront, which generates around 15 Billion a year in revenue, of which we know 70% goes to the game developers. So that leaves about 5 billion a year, minus costs on staff, overhead, servers, etc.
Not sure why 16 Billion wouldn't be a lot of money, depending on what the actual profit margins are.
Steam isn't hurting. While 16 billion isn't a terrible offer, it isn't enough to entice someone to sell if they are not already looking to do so.
 

salva

Member
That ain't happening, and not for a dismal $16b.
But the meltdowns on this forum if it ever did happen would be amazing
 

bender

What time is it?
Valuations of private companies are tricky, but the few results I saw online had Valve around the 8 billion mark. Money probably isn’t a motivation for Gabe beyond being beneficial to the other stake holders (employees). It would probably come down to Gabe’s age and his willingness to deal with the stress that comes from owning any company. Not that I take much stock in this rumor.
 

whyman

Member
It would be logical. Valve (with steam) is the only company that could save the gaming branch of Microsoft at this point. Hopefully, Gabe Newell is already swimming in enough money that the prospect of even more seems unnecessary.
 

ReyBrujo

Member
HAHAHAHHAHAA

first valve is 100% private company. it has no stocks.
second they spent 70b on activblizzard. 16b for a company that owns the leading marketplace in the PC space makes zero sense.

The fact that it's a private company only means Microsoft can't setup a hostile takeover but they can anyway put an offer.
 

whyman

Member
That ain't happening, and not for a dismal $16b.
But the meltdowns on this forum if it ever did happen would be amazing
I asked the same "person" as Microsoft would have, ChatGPT. It estimated Valve could accept an offer "in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion". So you are right, it is dismal, Microsoft went low.
 

ReyBrujo

Member
I asked the same "person" as Microsoft would have, ChatGPT. It estimated Valve could accept an offer "in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion". So you are right, it is dismal, Microsoft went low.

The offer might be for 51%-75% of the ownership, though. In that case 16b would be acceptable.
 
I can believe that Valve might be interested in selling. Maybe not to Microsoft, but someone. And this is a good time to sell I think.

AAA is dying, and I could see Valve investors wanting to cash out.

Now, do I think it will happen? Unlikely.

For double LOLs, how about selling Steam to Tencent and the games/hardware to MS?
 

Drell

Member
I can believe that Valve might be interested in selling. Maybe not to Microsoft, but someone. And this is a good time to sell I think.

AAA is dying, and I could see Valve investors wanting to cash out.

Now, do I think it will happen? Unlikely.

For double LOLs, how about selling Steam to Tencent and the games/hardware to MS?
There's no "Valve investors" Gaben own 100% of the company.
 

Chiggs

Gold Member
As history has shown us, what Microsoft wants Microsoft gets. The question is how bad do they want it.

Not quite. In this case, they could buy it outright and the only party that needs convincing is Valve.

Valve is not publicly traded, which means no FCC, FTC, or SEC interference.
 

//DEVIL//

Member
Not quite. In this case, they could buy it outright and the only party that needs convincing is Valve.

Valve is not publicly traded, which means no FCC, FTC, or SEC interference.
wait. this doesnt make sense.

if they decided to buy Valve and they accept. FTC has no no say it and can't stop it / any regulator can't stop it ?

if so we are doomed.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
uh, where are people taking from that regulatory organs cannot interfere with private deals? Genuine question because afaik they analyse and review any merger above a certain value.
 
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ZehDon

Member
Given that Valve has put considerable resources into almost-single-handedly creating an alternative ecosystem to Microsoft's - Steam, SteamOS, Proton, Steam Deck - and that Valve has no shareholders to answer to for rejecting a purchase offer, I'm gonna go ahead and file this one under "[bender_oh_your_serious.gif]"
 

Chiggs

Gold Member
uh, where are people taking from that regulatory organs cannot interfere with private deals? Genuine question because afaik they analyse and review any merger above a certain value.

Because it's incredibly, incredibly, incredibly unlikely given the circumstances, and any review would be a rubberstamp move.

The United States has literally allowed a hostile foreign entity (China) to buy up its farmland, so, you know....where are you coming from?

Edit: Maybe we're talking EU vs USA?
 
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