Microsoft offering to buy Minecraft for 2 Billion?

There isn't much news on this yet, as right now it is just an empty claim. But apparently someone who knows about the deal stated that Microsoft is offering Mojang 2 Billion Dollars for the rights to Minecraft.

Now, since there is not much news to this and it has NOT been confirmed, please keep the replies civil, here are the news sources that are already reporting it, saying it is "developing the story further" I will add more news sources as they appear.

CNBC:http://www.cnbc.com/id/101975715
WALL STREET JOURNAL: http://online.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-near-deal-to-buy-minecraft-1410300213?mod=wsj_nview_latest

And if we could actually be mature about this and not go hysterical with jokes about what Microsoft would do with Minecraft in it's hands that would be great. Thanks.

Moderators if I could request something, I can see there being a bunch of threads quickly typed up as soon as people hear about this, if you could please don't lock this as long as there isn't another one with more viable information (unless it gets too off topic of course), I'm trying to keep this up to date as much as I can without going overboard on these empty claims. Thanks

 

Notch has said that it's a game by gamers for gamers. He would never be a sell out to someone with tons of cash - which he already has.

 

I've spoken to two reporters privately about this and whilst they are reporting what they hear etc they don't subscribe to it.

Reasons:

• Mojang is at around $800million today in likely profit. Assuming they get valued at $1.5billion+ based on potential earnings it still wouldn't be enough to get a $2billion pay day and even then there would be golden handcuff arrangements in place with the talent (Jeb, Notch, etc would *have* to agree to retain their roles in the company).
  
• Microsoft have signalled that XBOX isn't a core focus right now for the company, and they are more focused on cloud and developer reboot strategies right now. Getting that balance right is what will break or make Microsoft's future(s) - gaming isn't rated as near as I can tell from current and former staff (who i worked with when i was there).
  
• Mojang's business immaturity will not be something that attracts the boards confidence. There's a plethora of examples (sorry Mojang peeps :/) ..but ..for example Mojang shutting the Oculus Rift because Facebook bought it. It's stuff like that which the "serious" finance guys etc at Microsoft would just not feel comfortable doing business with - and if they did - it would mean an executive level swap out for Mojang.
  
• The only realistic reasons why this would be attractive to Microsoft from an acquisition is to get the Intellectual Property rights (voxel engine) which isn't a major thing to build anyway (I created this in Unity3D in 2 days https://vimeo.com/71330826#at=0). If it's not IP then its brand reach and mobility, which would could be used to bootstrap Minecraft onto Windows Phone - yet - it'd be cheaper to offer the company $100million to solve that problem for a windows 9 port.. or better yet convince them to go 100% unity3D all the way and get all that for cheaper anyway). Now comes the Franchise point, ok assuming Mojang haven't hit 60-80% saturation levels in the game adoption already (which i'd be very surprised) then you have market opportunity still available, but that won't net $2billion in return profits. Also keep in mind the EXISTING profits aren't Mojang's bank account per say, when you buy the company that paypal balance doesn't transfer over entirely either hehe ..so Microsoft would be -$2bn to begin with.
  
  Now you have to also then seed a new audience and own the marketing problem, so already you're $2billion in a negative balance sheet now you have to inject more capital into the market to grow the pie on whatever device/platform you're hoping to take Minecraft to. .. Now Windows took around $200-300million to market and GTA5 took around $200million to market and they were starting from a 0 adoption rate. You'd have to at least spend $50-100million in seeding / marketing alone to get the numbers to bump up further.
  
  So to recap
  
  • Mojang for Windows Phone 8+9 Sales. Would cost more than its worth.
  • Mojang for XBOXONE sales. You already get this for free anyway, why re-buy something you already have now. Exclusivity would just kill your PC franchise sales and create disharmony in the gaming community which results in brand debt.
  • Mojang for Intellectual Property. It's firstly mostly in Java and the bulk of the rest is in platforms like Unity3D anyway. There's heaps of examples of others doing this () so whilst there's definitely kudos for Mojang guys for having the first idea and inspiration to make Minecraft, there's no specific secret sauce that prevents other tech platforms from doing it other than trademark / legal isssues. So paying $2billion for a $800-$1bn trademark right(s) doesn't add up.
  • Mojang for Cloud Adoption: ..oh ffs. i won't even acknowledge that point.
  • Mojang for Platform/Tooling: ...again...nothing
• This will be the first acquisition that the CEO of Microsoft makes in his name (granted an acquisition like this would have meant it would technically be SteveB's legacy) but his hinted that XBOXONE isn't his core focus for the future right now, so why start with a big acquisition like this. If Microsoft were serious about Gaming acquisitions Unity3D would be a prime target, given its got Mono (C#), it handles X-platform deployment/publishing, it has a much healthier market share on mobility platform adoption(s), it solves the XNA death issue and it can be retrofitted to take on a Minecraft clone anyway.

so... not buying into it

 

1st Link takes 2nd Link as source, 2nd Link is not readable due to paywall?
-> Bullshit.

(Mojang is the wrong company to sell itself, and Microsoft the wrong company to buy them)
Edit: See post above

Edit2: If the localized version is the same as the english version, the text just speaks of a "well informed person". Not a single information what makes him "well informed" or why WSJ thinks, it's a reliable source.

 

You can get around the paywall easily. Google search the article's title, and in the search results, click the very same article you were looking at. It's a Referrer based block.

 

Now that the focus is on wevils... what with the patent-trolls of pestulon?

 

microsoft just looks at things and buy them. I don't believe in this but I doubt mojang will sellout.