News in brief

A bite of the Apple

> PORTABLE SPEAKER DROPPED Apple–owned Beats has discontinued the Beats Pill+, the only portable wireless speaker available under either the Beats or the Apple brand. The Bluetooth speaker, which featured a 12–hour battery and a Lightning port for recharging, was the first new product released by Beats after the company was acquired by Apple in 2014. It was also the last speaker from either Beats or Apple before the HomePod and HomePod mini, and was never updated with newer features such as support for Siri, AirPlay, or Apple’s H1 audio chip. > MICROSOFT BUYS ACTIVISION BLIZZARD FOR $69 BILLION Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard in a cash deal that values the gaming company at $68.7 billion. The acquisition brings heavy hitters including Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Candy Crush into the Microsoft stable alongside the software giant’s existing brands such as Minecraft and Doom, and makes it the third biggest company (by revenue) in gaming globally, behind Tencent and Sony.

Microsoft says it plans to add Activision Blizzard titles to its Game Pass subscription service, which offers a rotating catalog of games from various publishers and currently has more than 25 million subscribers. Activision Blizzard is estimated to have nearly 400 million active players in over 190 countries.

The deal is yet to be okayed by antitrust regulators.