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An important deadline has been extended for borrowers with older federal student loans who might be eligible to have them forgiven.Borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) not held by the federal government now have until June 30, 2024, to consolidate their student debt into federal loans in order to take advantage of a program that gives borrowers extra credit toward having forgiveness. Borrowers previously faced a deadline of April 30 to consolidate those loans to gain eligibility for a one-time account adjustment scheduled to take effect in September.The adjustment will change the payment counts for borrowers to have their loans forgiven under income-driven repayment plans, which forgive the remaining balances of borrowers after they make regular payments for 20 or 25 years. The adjustment will also apply to people eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives the loans of people who have worked for government or nonprofit organizations for 10 years.The payment adjustment will add credit for payments that previously didn’t count, including time spent in deferment for military service, economic hardship, or for payments made on repayment plans that were previously ineligible among other circumstances. The adjustment is also meant to correct for past errors by the companies that administer student loans on behalf of the government, and has resulted in $49.2 billion in forgiveness for more than 996,000 borrowers so far, the department said.

Crucially, the adjustment applies to borrowers whether or not they are currently enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan, meaning that some people who have had student loans for a long time could get their loans canceled even if they previously weren’t on track for forgiveness. 

“FFEL borrowers should consolidate as soon as possible in order to receive this benefit that has already provided forgiveness to nearly 1 million borrowers,” U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said in a press release.

FFEL loans are a type of federal student loan, no longer given out, which can be held either by the government or by a private lender. Privately held loans must be combined into federal loans to qualify for the payment count adjustment.

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Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) is a global entertainment company that, through subsidiaries, develops and publishes entertainment content, video games, and related services. The company was formed by the 2008 merger of Activision Inc. and Blizzard Entertainment (a part of Vivendi at the time of the merger) and is known for industry-defining franchises that include World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Diablo, and Candy Crush.

Activision Blizzard develops and distributes video games and other services on mobile devices, game consoles, and personal computers. It also generates revenue through esports leagues and sells digital advertising and in-game content. The company operates across three primary segments: Activision, Blizzard, and King.

Activision rapidly expanded in the video game industry through a series of prominent acquisitions before merging with part of Vivendi to form Activision Blizzard. Since the formation of Activision Blizzard in 2008, the pace of acquisitions has slowed. Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest players in the industry, with 2022 net revenue of $7.53 billion and net income of $1.51 billion.

Below, we look in detail at five of Activision Blizzard’s most important acquisitions, beginning with key deals by Activision before the merger. With the exception of its Activision, Blizzard, and King segments, the company does not provide a breakdown of how much profit or revenue each acquisition currently contributes.

Raven Software is a video game developer founded in 1990 and known for the popular games and . This company is first on our list because it represents an early acquisition for Activision in what would become a series of major purchases that the company made after CEO Bobby Kotick took the helm in 1990. While Kotick has been vilified by video game purists for his obsession with profits over art, his early string of acquisitions of video game developers helped make Activision Blizzard an industry leader.

Raven remains a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard and played a significant role in the development of the recent game in the Call of Duty franchise, the sequel , released in late 2020.

Infinity Ward, developer of the early games in the Call of Duty franchise, is one of Activision Blizzard’s most important acquisitions. Infinity Ward was founded in 2002, and Activision provided early financial support in exchange for a 30% stake in the startup. After Infinity Ward released its first game, , in October 2003, Activision responded by buying the remaining 70% stake in the company.

Activision did not reveal the price when it announced the deal, but a lawsuit filed against Activision in 2010 by Infinity Ward’s two fired co-founders said that Activision paid about $5 million for a franchise that had brought in billions of dollars in revenue since the deal. In fact, the Call of Duty series became one of the most popular video game franchises, and by late 2009 had brought in $3 billion in revenue for the parent.

Treyarch Invention is a video game developer founded in 1996. While the company did not have a major flagship game of its own, it secured Activision’s leadership position in action and action-sports games. The deal played a crucial role in developing games for the Tony Hawk series.

After several years of rapid expansion through acquisitions of smaller game developers, Activision merged with Blizzard Entertainment in 2008 to create Activision Blizzard, forming one of the world’s largest video game companies. Prior to the acquisition, Blizzard was owned by a division of French media conglomerate Vivendi.

A key reason for Activision’s interest in the merger was Blizzard’s World of Warcraft franchise, which represented both the emerging multiplayer online gaming market and the potential for subscription models and other revenue streams. Under the merger, Vivendi bought 52% of Activision and would boost its stake to 68%. The combined companies were valued at $18.9 billion as Vivendi folded its gaming operations into Activision’s. Kotick remained CEO of the new Activision Blizzard.

In 2013, Activision Blizzard bought back a major portion of the company’s shares from Vivendi for about $5.8 billion, helping to sharply reduce Vivendi’s stake in the company. In 2016, Vivendi sold its remaining stake to Activision Blizzard, thus exiting the original merger entirely.

After the giant Activision Blizzard merger in 2008, the combined company slowed the pace of its acquisitions. However, one major deal has allowed Activision Blizzard to expand into a new market segment. By purchasing mobile game developer King Digital, maker of the popular Candy Crush series, Activision Blizzard stepped into the rapidly growing world of mobile gaming.

With the completion of the acquisition in early 2016, Activision Blizzard became the largest game network in the world by total user base. The King acquisition is one of several deals in recent years that Activision Blizzard undertook in an effort to expand into new markets.

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Reality TV Star Uriel has lamented about unpleasant odour from a lady who spent a fortune on enhancing her body.

She felt it inappropriate for the lady to be reeking of an unpleasant smell if she could afford to spend money on enhancing her body.

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U.S. equities gained at midday after a report showed consumer inflation slowed in April, raising hopes the Fed can begin cutting interest rates. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq reached record intraday highs during the session, and the Dow advanced as well.

The inflation news helped boost shares of D.R. Horton (DHI) and other homebuilders that benefit from lower borrowing costs.

Shares of Monday.com (MNDY) skyrocketed as the maker of cloud-based workflow software beat profit and sales forecasts, reported a large gain in customers, had record free cash flow, and gave a better-than-expected outlook.

Dell Technologies (DELL) shares climbed after Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the stock, citing the tech firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) business momentum.

Boeing (BA) shares dropped after the Department of Justice said the plane maker violated a 2021 settlement tied to a pair of crashes of its 737 Max jets.

Shares of AMC Entertainment (AMC) plunged as the meme stock craze that was revived on Monday faded and the theater chain operator announced a 23.3 million share debt-for-equity swap. Shares of meme stock darling GameStop (GME) tumbled as well.

Petrobras (PBR) American depositary receipts (ADRs) tumbled as CEO Jean Paul Prates was ousted by Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva following a dispute over the payment of dividends to investors. 

Oil and gold futures rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank. The U.S. dollar declined versus the euro, pound, and yen. Prices for most major cryptocurrencies were higher.

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Reality TV Star, Chizzy has insinuated that some of his colleagues engage in gay sexual activities in order to afford their expensive lifestyle.

He took to his social media page to reveal that a colleague of his who has no endorsement deals, but is currently riding in a luxury car, as he questioned how he got the car if he wasn’t into an immoral lifestyle.

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After Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI unveiled its most capable artificial intelligence (AI) model yet called GPT-4o on Monday, analysts indicated that gains from the improved tech could benefit a number of companies including Apple (AAPL) and Nvidia (NVDA).

Analysts highlighted how new audio capabilities could enhance the iPhone's Siri amid reports about a possible Apple partnership. They also noted how developments like the launch of GPT-4o could boost demand for cloud platforms, as well as drive growth for Nvidia and other chipmakers.

In the wake of reports that OpenAI and Apple are near closing an AI partnership deal, CFRA analysts suggested Apple could potentially leverage a partnership with OpenAI and enhanced voice features to "help make the iPhone a true assistant for consumers (via a massive upgrade for Siri)."

"By combining voice, text and images seamlessly, the demo captured how AI can drive incredible amounts of productivity," Bank of America analysts said in a report reiterating their "buy" rating for Apple on "benefits from GenAI at edge with gross margin upside and momentum in Services."

OpenAI's new model could also serve to boost demand for Microsoft's Azure, the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI.

UBS analysts noted in a report Tuesday that the "competitive landscape is intensifying" for large language models (LLMs) with the release of GPT-4o, which relies on the internet to connect to remote servers that run the AI workloads, and that "leading cloud platforms that host LLMs are well positioned to benefit from increased consumption and uptake" associated with running AI workloads remotely.

At the end of the launch event, OpenAI Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mira Murati thanked Nvidia and its CEO Jensen Huang "for bringing us the most advanced GPUs to make this demo possible," underlining Nvidia's prime position in the AI ecosystem with advancements made in the space benefiting the chipmaker.

Bank of America analysts wrote that progress in the AI race, like OpenAI's GPT-4o launch, "could be a multi-year growth driver" for Nvidia, as well as Broadcom (AVGO), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Micron Technology (MU), Arm Holdings (ARM), and AMD (AMD), among others.

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