WASHINGTON
\nWorld Bank President David Malpass has questioned Microsoft\u2019s multi-billion dollar takeover of video game developer Activision Blizzard, saying one has to wonder if it is \u201cthe best allocation of capital.\u201d
\nThe American technology giant announced earlier this week that it was to pay nearly $69 billion for the game studio behind \u2018Call of Duty\u2019, the world\u2019s best-selling first-person shooter video game franchise, RT reported on Thursday.
\nSpeaking at a virtual economics event on Wednesday, Malpass said the scale of the acquisition deal \u201cstruck\u201d him and he drew a contrast with the amount of money that wealthier nations donate to the International Development Association, the World Bank\u2019s fund for the globe\u2019s poorest countries.
\nIn December, 48 high- and middle-income governments pledged to allocate just under $24 billion over three years to help poor countries fight poverty, deal with the impact of Covid-19, and restructure their \u2018staggering\u2019 debt payments.
\nMalpass pointed out that the funds from the acquisition would go to the bond market, which poorer nations have very little access to. Bond financing is a type of long-term borrowing used by governments to raise money from investors (companies and individuals), primarily for infrastructure development purposes.
\n\u201cThat gets you into a situation where a huge amount of the capital is being allocated to already capital-intensive parts of the world \u2013 the advanced economies \u2013 building more and more on top of already heavily built infrastructure and real estate, for example,\u201d Malpass said, Reuters reported.
\nThe World Bank chief added that instead, more money should be going into developing countries to help \u201caddress the refugee flow and that malnutrition that\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON World Bank President David Malpass has questioned Microsoft\u2019s multi-billion dollar takeover of video game developer Activision Blizzard, saying one has to wonder if it is \u201cthe best allocation of capital.\u201d The American technology giant announced earlier this week that it was to pay nearly $69 billion for the game studio behind \u2018Call of Duty\u2019, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-239741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n