Sony PlayStation is in trouble with Microsoft’s planned acquisition of  Activision Blizzard, the makers of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush. Yes, I believe that if this deal goes through, over time, Call of Duty will be cut-out of PlayStation.

This playbook is also the validation that the future of gaming is content, not just hardware. Microsoft understands that redesign and is building critical assets in the industry. First was Minecraft which it paid $2.5 billion. Now, it wants to spend close to $68 billion for Activision Blizzard. It had also bought many studios, including ZeniMax Media which it spent $7.5 billion three years ago.

Microsoft (LinkedIn’s parent company) announced it has agreed to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The all-cash deal provides Microsoft with the video game maker’s many popular titles, including Candy Crush, Call of Duty and Warcraft, as well as its nearly 400 million monthly gaming users. It also positions Microsoft as a major rival to Facebook in the race to dominate the metaverse, the broad term for VR, AR and virtual worlds.

Apple has won the smartphone world with the iPhone as the hub in America’s mobile internet. Microsoft wants its Xbox console to be what iPhone is to mobile internet. With these assets, that is evidently a possibility. The future of gaming will pass through Xbox because it will provide some of the best content in the world.

This is one of the effects of subscription where exclusivity is what matters. In other words, companies will be building their content because that is the only way to get customers to keep renewing. This redesign happened in movies where the best ones (for example, Netflix’s House of Cards, and Orange Is The New Black) are exclusive. The best AB games will become exclusive to Xbox.

So, Sony has a real challenge as Microsoft consolidates the world of serious gaming.

It is the software company’s major push to grab more share of the burgeoning game industry. The transaction is at $95.00 per share and will include Activision’s franchises such as Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Candy Crush.

The game industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world and offers Microsoft the opportunity develop its metaverse platforms.

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard in A $68.7 Billion Deal

The name Inyange is of Bantu origin and means “This is a completely white plumage bird which belongs to the heron and listed as one of the most beautiful white birds in the world. It is also called white Egret, great white Egret or great white Heron. This name is mainly for girls, where those who name a baby ‘Inyange,’ wish her to be attractive, beautiful as the bird is among its kinds (animals).”

While I cannot make a definitive statement about Inyange being either a family business or conglomerate like Akagera Business Group, one thing is for sure – it is a brand to be reckoned with in Rwanda. From the minute to step off the plane to any and every part of the country you set foot, you can be rest assured that Inyange is in your face. It is a leading food processing company in Rwanda, manufacturing a variety of products under their brand name- “Inyange.”

Inyange industries is engaged in the business of producing & selling a wide variety of fruit products, including fruit juice concentrates, fruit juice drinks & dairy related products. Our products are primarily sold to the local market, as well as regionally via Inyange certified distributors. The Inyange brand has been operating since 1997. However, it was not until 1999 when it began operations including processing & selling pasteurized milk & yoghurt.

Inyange manufactures a wide range of products & thus has quickly become a household name in the fast-moving consumer goods industry in Rwanda known for high quality mineral drinking water, fruit juices, milk & dairy products.

“At Inyange, we take pride in our levels of high quality that we maintain from raw material procurement to delivery of the final product. This has earned the company the market leader position in many of the production lines.”

In 2001 the plant introduced mineral water processing & packaging. Realizing that the domestic demand for all Inyange products was much higher than the facilities could supply, Inyange’s shareholders embarked on an ambitious expansion project, the construction of a US$27 Million production plan in Masaka, which has since allowed for Inyange’s production capacity to increase tenfold.  

Masaka is located in Gasabo District, Kigali Province, approximately 17 kilometres, by road, south-east of the central business district of Kigali City. Masaka is located about 9 kilometres, by road, south-west of Kabuga, at the eastern edge of the city of Kigali, along KK3 Road (RN3). Masaka is a sparsely populated area with an estimated population of approximately 4,558, as of January 2018. In January 2018, the government of Rwanda selected this neighborhood to be the location of the cargo terminal of the western end of the Isaka–Kigali Standard Gauge Railway.

Bottled Water

This increased capacity more than fulfills local demand & additionally allows for Inyange to expand its market to neighboring countries, taking advantage of Rwanda being part of the East African Community & its customs union.  

Sample of Products

In terms of its distribution network, the brand covers three main locations including Nyarugenge (Ali’s Inyange depot is located in the brand new CHIC complex in the bustling central business district of Kigali), Kicukiro (Majyambere’s depot is strategically located in the lively residential neighborhood of Gikondo) and Gasabo District (through Byagatonda located in the fast growing residential neighborhood of Kimironko).

Ultimately, this article resonates with my discussion with marketing students when we discussed the characteristics of a good brand name, we discussed the need for it to be easily spelt and pronounced, legally protected and extendable. Evidently, Inyange ticks all these boxes – it can virtually mean anything.

Happiness – your choice and no other can flip it.

Over the years, as a kid growing up in the village of Ovim, to a young man in the university, to a banker, to an engineer, to a teacher and everything, the summary is this: no man, no woman, and nothing can make you happy UNTIL you decide to be happy with yourself.

Ndubuisi, you will be going to Owerri. I was very happy because I would be leaving the village to study in the city. Then, from Owerri to Lagos, from Lagos to New York. But in all, I realized one thing: there was something really amazing in the past that I did not appreciate.

This is the deal: life is a moving target; it makes sense to recalibrate and find ways to be positive, for happiness. Your choice and no other can flip it!

In the Nigerian Stock Exchange*, BUA Foods Plc has since joined the club of stocks worth over one trillion (SWOOTs). Yes, just like that, another company has been seeded that is worth at least N1 trillion. Nigeria has a promise for builders and makers despite the paralysis. The club members now are  Airtel Africa, BUA Cement, Dangote Cement, Nestle, MTN Nigeria and – BUA Foods.

• Airtel Africa – N3.95 trillion
• BUA Cement – N2.32 trillion
• Dangote Cement – N4.59 trillion
• Nestle – N1.137 trillion
• MTN Nigeria – N3.87 trillion
• BUA Foods – N1.19 trillion

So the three sectors – cement, food and telecoms – now have pairs in the club. In my 2022 Outlook, I explained how you can trace this back to the 1917 and 1967 largest publicly traded companies in the United States. Then, steel companies (US Steel) dominated, then tech infrastructure firms (IBM) and until recently knowledge firms like Apple and Microsoft.

Where are the fintechs? Not yet. Nigeria is at a state where building houses, having core tech infrastructure and eating food are things that interest the investors. So, if you plan to hit it big in the nation’s stock market, you know where to focus.

Sure, within a decade, we expect the new species of tech firms to register in the big board as the current wave of digitization transforms the economy. I expect startups which are focusing on agriculture related domains like logistics, processing, distribution and  actual farming to continue to have opportunities in the local exchange.

Besides food, the battle for cement continues and BUA Cement is also firing all the cylinders.

One of the many reasons why BUA cement is so attractive to anyone looking to invest is its efficiency. BUA Cement has displayed elite level of proficiency in its cost management, let me sight an example with the performances from 2020 in comparison with Dangote Cement and Lafarge Africa.

These are the gross earnings for 2020

• Dangote cement plc- N1.034 trillion
• Lafarge Africa plc- N230.6 billion
• BUA cement plc- N 209.4 billion

Whilst these are the profit after tax for the period.

• Dangote Cement- N276 billion

• Lafarge Africa plc- N30.8 billion

• BUA Cement plc- N 72.3 billion

If you compute profit after tax as a percentage of the gross earnings (eliminating the cost component) you’ll notice that BUA’s percentage (35%) is way higher than even Dangote’s at 27% not to mention Lafarge Africa. This is cost proficiency at its finest.

Watch some videos below.

The Lessons from Okomu Oil Palm and BUA Foods in Nigeria