"I had to spend five days in Stockholm with [Markus 'Notch' Persson], the guy who founded the company. We offered him $1.5 billion. And he said, 'By the way, I'm quitting, and my top leadership guys are all quitting.' And they only had 30 employees at the company. Like, we can't run your company."
"Kotick went on to say that it was Xbox executive Phil Spencer who ultimately got the deal done for Minecraft. He also singled out another Xbox executive, Matt Booty, who "did a really great job" at managing the Minecraft business after Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang. In the end, Minecraft did end up in the Activision family by way of Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard, but that came later."
Microsoft bought Mojang and Minecraft in 2014 for $2.5 billion. Activision and EA were also interested in acquiring the franchise. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said he nearly bought Mojang after spending five days in Stockholm with Markus "Notch" Persson and offering $1.5 billion, but Persson warned that he and key leadership planned to quit and the studio had only about 30 employees. Persson later received Microsoft's $2.5 billion offer and accepted. Xbox executives Phil Spencer and Matt Booty were credited with closing the deal and managing Minecraft thereafter. Microsoft offered incentives to retain Mojang staff after the acquisition.
Read at GameSpot
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