Info Tech
Microsoft to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang for $2.5 Billion
Microsoft Corporation, maker of the Xbox video-game console, agreed to acquire Mojang AB, the software company behind the popular game Minecraft, for $2.5 billion, in a bid to boost its Xbox and mobile businesses.
Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, said Stockholm-based Mojang will join its game-studio division, though the company’s founders will move on to other projects. The purchase is projected to close late this year, and will break even in fiscal 2015, Microsoft said today in a statement.
Buying Mojang would be the biggest deal struck since Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft’s chief executive officer in February, succeeding Steve Ballmer. The purchase gives Nadella a game that is popular across consoles, computers and mobile devices made by Microsoft and rivals like Apple Inc. It also bolsters a push to woo serious gamers back to Xbox after a lackluster attempt to turn the system into an all-in-one device that serves up broader content such as movies and music.
“Acquiring the Minecraft game through the Mojang acquisition gives Mr. Nadella & Co. the right product at the right time as the company continues to invest in its Xbox strategy and begins its foray into the intensely competitive mobile-phone space with Nokia now under Microsoft’s hood and the restructuring plan under way,” Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets & Co., wrote in a note.
Microsoft will continue to make Minecraft available across all software platforms, including personal computers, Apple’s iOS, Google Inc.’s Android and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation console.
Overseas Cash
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft plans to pay for the acquisition with cash held overseas, said Peter Wootton, a company spokesman. That would have favorable tax consequences for the software maker, which has its vast majority of cash and short-term investments outside the U.S.
“Minecraft is more than a great game franchise –- it is an open world platform, driven by a vibrant community we care deeply about, and rich with new opportunities for that community and for Microsoft,” Nadella said in the statement.
Since taking over as CEO, Nadella has been refocusing Microsoft’s efforts around software for mobile gadgets and the cloud, as the PC market continues to slow. He’s advocated a strategy of making the company’s programs compatible with rival operating systems and devices.
Minecraft, a game that puts users inside a vast, pixelated virtual landscape, is made for multiple platforms including game consoles, PCs and smartphones. As of June, four-year-old Mojang had sold more than 54 million copies of the game in all its forms.
Persson’s Approach
The deal came together after Mojang co-founder Markus Persson reached out to Microsoft a few months ago, based on a positive working relationship on Minecraft for Xbox, a person familiar with Microsoft said last week. The two companies quickly agreed on a framework and approximate price and had been working out the details since, the person said. Mojang was advised on the deal by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
Persson in a note on his personal website today discussed the stress he has felt coping with the massive Minecraft community and cases where feedback has turned hostile.
“I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me,” Persson wrote. “I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.”
Close Relationship
Xbox chief Phil Spencer has a close relationship with Persson, and has flown out to have dinners with the Mojang founder, another person familiar with Microsoft said last week.
“There are only a handful of potential buyers with the resources to grow Minecraft on a scale that it deserves,” Owen Hill, a spokesman for Mojang, said in a posting on its website. “We’re confident that Minecraft will continue to grow in an awesome way.”
Since becoming CEO in February, Nadella has declared that he wants to have Microsoft programs work across many gadgets, in a break from having the company’s software running primarily on hardware that uses its Windows operating system. In March, Nadella said he would “hold nothing back” to achieve that goal. The deal also underlines the CEO’s commitment to Xbox. While investors have long debated whether Microsoft should spin off the consumer-oriented business, Nadella said in a companywide memo in July that he would invest in the unit.
Microsoft shares fell less than 1 percent to $46.24 at the close in New York. The stock has gained 24 percent this year.
Game’s Universe
Minecraft is an online world where users build structures, including replicas of actual cities and buildings, and face few rules or restrictions. One aim is to avoid being eaten by monsters that come out after dark. Enthusiasts host conventions and contests to reward the most spectacular constructions.
Persson founded Mojang in 2010, after he coded Minecraft on a lark in 2009 as a side project when he came home from working at his day job making games for King.com, a U.K.-based gaming site.
For a while, users could only buy Minecraft on Persson’s website, where it retailed for 15 euros. By April 2011, Minecraft, which is a bit like playing Lego inside a digital landscape, had sold more than 1.75 million copies.
Mojang’s game, which attracts fans of all ages, has also spawned lines of toys, books and T-shirts as well as an array of modifications, or mods, which alter and add content to the game and are written by enthusiasts rather than by the company.
Persson handed over the main Minecraft developer duties to colleague Jens Bergensten in 2011 to focus on new projects. Today, Persson said he will leave Mojang as soon as the deal is completed, and he addressed fans’ concerns about his departure in the post on his website.
‘Too Many’
“Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big,” Persson wrote. “In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.”
Persson controls about 71 percent of Mojang, according to the annual reports of the game maker and Persson’s holding company, Notch Enterprises AB. Persson’s share of proceeds of $2.5 billion would be about $1.7 billion. He’s also collected more than $100 million in dividends since 2011, which would give him a total net worth of $1.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“It’s not about the money,” Persson wrote today. “It’s about my sanity.”
Microsoft’s Risk
Microsoft takes the risk that it is buying Minecraft at the height of its popularity and that Mojang, without the founders, may not grow rapidly or produce lucrative sequels, Ives said in an interview last week.
Minecraft was the No. 2 best-selling game by physical retail copies sold in July for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, behind Sony Corp.’s The Last of Us for PlayStation consoles, according to research firm NPD Group Inc. It was the No. 3 game in June.
The game was made available for the newest generation of consoles, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, earlier this month.
“Change is scary, and this is a big change for all of us,” Mojang’s Hill wrote in the statement. “It’s going to be good though. Everything is going to be OK.”
In efforts at spicing up the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, the management of ITREALMS Media has partnered with E-waste Producer Responsibility Organization of Nigeria (EPRON) membership organisations for a day-long collection scheme of small electronic waste on Friday, December 15, 2023.
The EPRON members aligning their partnership with 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue are EL-AS Tech Enterprises Limited and WEEE Eco-Friendly.
ITREALMS’ day-long collection scheme is part of the commemoration of 2023 international E-Waste Day (IEWD) within the ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue with the theme “You Can Recycle Anything with a plug, battery or cable” at Welcome Centre Hotels, International Airport Road, Lagos.
Revealing this collaboration, the Group Executive Editor, ITREALMS Media, the organisers of the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, Sir. Remmy Nweke, urged mobile device enthusiasts to come along with their devices that have reached their end-of-life to the venue for proper disposition by professionals who would also be on grounds to address some topical issues.
The collection of small electronic wastes especially mobile phones and like-devices, would be carried out by EPRON member organisation, EL-AS Tech Enterprises Limited as facilitated by ITREALMS Media group as part of this year’s ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue on Friday, December 15, he added.
He disclosed that the exercise would commence at Welcome Centre Hotel by 9am till close of work hours the same day.
Nweke pointed out that the collection of small e-waste items would include mobile phones, pointers mouse, earpieces, rechargeable torches, phone chargers, to name a few.
Further, he said, that this initiative has become time-serving because some people may have missed any other opportunity before now for the year-long campaign, hence this awareness on e-Waste has to be continuous, “ITREALMS came up with this scheme.”
Nweke beckoned on Nigerians, especially mobile phone users, to leverage the opportunity in disposing of their mobile devices they no longer use, of course in exchange for a voucher or gift item.
In her reaction to this year’s day-long small waste collection, EPRON Executive Secretary, Mrs. Ibukun Faluyi, described the initiative as commendable, expressing confidence it would intensify the collection of end-of-life devices for proper disposition.
Mrs. Faluyi, also urged Nigerians to take advantage of this day-long collection of small wastes courtesy of ITREALMS Media.
Recalling for instance that in October 2022, EPRON had partnered SLOT alongside some UN agencies for collection of small e-waste items in Lagos, including the United Nations Information Centres (UNIC), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Labour Organisation (ILO), Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA).
This is even as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Aminu Maida and Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Aliyu Jauro, would both lead speakers at the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue slated for this Friday, December 15, in Lagos.
Today, September 12, the tech corporation Apple will introduce the iPhone 15, their newest iPhone model.
According to a Forbes story, this model, which will be introduced at the company’s “Wanderlust” event in Cupertino, California, will be available in four variations: the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Here are five things you should know about the new iPhone 15 model.
1. The new model is made of titaniu, not stainless steel as some other Apple smartphone models, Senior research analyst at DIGITIMES, Luke Lin reports.
2. The Pro Max model will feature double the optical zoom on the iPhone 14 as it comes with a newly-introduced ‘periscope lens upgrade, performing 5-6x optical zoom.’
3. The Pro models will carry an A17 bionic chip expected to make it perform faster.
4. The iPhone 15 model will feature a USB-C charging port, the same port featured on some Android phone models.
5. Due to its titanium shell, the new model is anticipated to be more expensive to purchase. The following is the speculated price list, as reported by Forbes:
The iPhone 15 starts at $799, the iPhone 15 Plus at $899, the iPhone 15 Pro at $1,099 ($100 increase), and the iPhone 15 Pro Max at $1,299 ($200 increase).
In an effort to reduce the exorbitant cost of Premium Motor Spirit, better known as petrol, the Infrastructure Bank Plc announced its collaboration with FEMADEC Group on Monday to offer 500 buses powered by autogas (Compressed Natural Gas).
Partners in the agreement claimed that the project was created to provide citizens with dependable, affordable, and environmentally friendly travel options, taking into account the negative effects of the nationwide increase in PMS costs.
Under Decree No. 51 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1992 Constitution, the Infrastructure Bank, originally known as the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria Plc, was founded in 1992 to promote the quick development of infrastructure throughout the nation.
In a statement issued in Abuja on its partnership with FEMADEC, the bank said, “The preliminary offer extended by TIB lays a solid foundation for the expansion of FEMADEC Group’s CNG bus fleet.
“With plans to introduce 500 CNG buses within the next five years, commencing with an initial batch of 50 buses in the forthcoming year, this proposal stands poised to instigate significant change.
“The acceptance of this proposition by FEMADEC Group, notably championed by Fola Akinnola, the Group Chief Executive Officer, is a testament to their zeal and dedication to this alliance.”
The bank described the partnership as a “pivotal endeavour that is primed to redefine Nigeria’s public transportation landscape, offering dependable, cost-effective, and ecologically conscious travel alternatives for citizens, while harmonising with the nation’s broader sustainability ambitions.”
“This partnership represents a remarkable stride towards a more ecologically aware future for Nigeria’s transportation sector, highlighting the shared commitment of both TIB and FEMADEC Group to sustainable advancement and progress.”
It said FEMADEC Group’s strides in operating Compressed Natural Gas buses, including the existing fleet of 20 CNG buses under LAMATA, underscored their unwavering dedication to ecologically sound solutions, a commitment predating the fuel subsidy removal.
“Their leadership within the CNG value chain is undeniable, and the new alliance with TIB underscores their foresight.
“This partnership seamlessly aligns with TIB’s sustainability objectives, echoing their resolute endorsement of the government’s net-zero and climate change agenda.
“The bank’s aspiration to champion Nigeria’s infrastructure progress is evident in its endorsement of pivotal initiatives like this, yielding expansive positive impacts on both the environment and society,” the bank stated.
The bank added that it would continue to make a significant contribution to the country’s growth as a leading financial institution committed to advancing effective and long-lasting infrastructure projects.
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