Microsoft’s $75bn bid for Activision Blizzard propelled shares of Sony to its biggest one-day drop since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with shares in the Japanese entertainment conglomerate dropping as much as 9.8 per cent in the opening minutes of trading on Wednesday.
Overnight news of the deal also triggered a wave of buying across Japan’s gaming sector, with shares in Square Enix and Capcom surging more than 5.0 per cent on speculation that they could become acquisition targets of Sony or as part of a broader land-grab.
Shares in Nintendo and Konami rose as much as 1.95 and 2.87 per cent, respectively, at the Tokyo open, as investors bet that some Japanese companies would consider domestic mergers as a defensive measure against takeover.