Original report comes from the paywalled The Information, that they tried to sell to private equity for $100B-$150B, but that it was short lived and fell through. This backs what a lot of us have been thinking based on the moves Sharma has been making, that they track with a sell-off of the Xbox brand.
it had all the telltale signs from the get go. Bring in fall guy. Suddenly raise service prices to unignorable level. Force attrition. Excuse to kill it and studios. Announce big plans to distract. Gut studios more. Get called out. Explain pivot. Resume gutting. Get called out. Announce vapor ware. Distract distract distract. jingles keys All carefully balanced for the two week news/memory cycle.
No matter how many times it’s explained, it has never made sense to me that “Buying and then gutting X” is a functional venture capital measure.
remember glass ceiling, thats why the fall “guy” is sharma, a women. often used by failing corporations to deflect blame on a woman.
I still remember Reddit bringing in Ellen Pao to take the blame for their first big wave of “censorship”. (If you consider banning communities dedicated to hating fat people or minorities censorship.)