Is Activision Blizzard Stock a Buy Even Without the Microsoft Deal?

For the past year, the video game industry has been intensely focused on one topic: Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) proposed buyout of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) for $75 billion. With a current spread to the closing deal price of 12.4%, merger arbitrage investors are making bets that the deal will get approved sometime soon, with Microsoft expecting the decision to be finalized at some point this summer. A lot of analysts are spending their time trying to figure out whether government regulators will approve this deal.