Microsoft isn't buying Valve and Counter-Strike for £12,000,000,000

Valve's Gabe Newell (Twitter) — Valve's Gabe Newell doesn't need time to think about that (Twitter)

A rumor that Microsoft wants to take over the PC market with a £12 billion takeover Valve there is ridicule social media.

According to a rumor that has spread on social media, Microsoft is continuing its video game shopping spree just seven months after release Xbox maker bought Call Of Duty developer Activision Blizzard for £59.3 billion.

The rumor claims that Microsoft is preparing a bid to buy Steam and Counter-Strike 2 owner Valve for £12 billion.

There is no evidence or reliable source behind the rumors, but they have spread like wild animals – despite there being no truth whatsoever in them.

DiorCS, who claim to have studied “six years of law and seven years of finance,” started the rumor when they tweeted:

“With approximately $80 billion CCE [Cash and cash equivalents]Microsoft is preparing a $16 billion offer for Valve. No shares, all cash.”

The tweet has received a community note warning readers that there is no evidence to support this claim, and others on Twitter have also dismissed the rumor.

Senior editor at The Verge, Tom Warren, said: “I can't believe I have to say this, but Microsoft is obviously not 'preparing a $16 billion offer for Valve.' Giving everyone blue checks was a bad idea.”

Content creator Jake Lucky says, “I bet my entire CS [Counter-Strike] inventory and left arm that Valve doesn't sell to Microsoft for $16 billion.”

If anyone believes Microsoft is acquiring Valve, I have a bridge to sell them, connected to a fantasy world where the Internet doesn't just make things up.

— Dom (@DomsPlaying) May 22, 2024

Others, like Harris Dot Zone, advocate for people to stop retweeting the message, saying:

'It's completely made up! The number makes no sense! Why would the largest game distributor sell for a fraction of what Activision was selling for?”

Considering Valve made £800 million last year from selling loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, £12 billion sounds like a very low offer, not just for Counter-Strike 2, but for Steam's entire store and everything other that Valve owns.

Microsoft also had difficulty getting the Activision deal through because British and American monopoly investigators tried to block the takeover. So there's almost no chance of such a deal going through even if Microsoft wanted to try.

If Microsoft were to buy Valve, it would have a large share of the PC gaming market, in addition to the console market with Xbox, but since the acquisition will never happen, it's not worth worrying about.