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Mergers and acquisitions in the gaming industry are often worth billions and create lots of buzz. In January 2022, the two biggest gaming acquisitions so far happened within a week of each other - on January 10, Take-Two Interactive announced it's purchase of social gaming company Zynga, signaling a stronger focus on mobile gaming. January 18, 2022, saw the surprise notice of Microsoft purchasing Activision Blizzard for 68.7 billion U.S. dollars.
Up unil then, Tencent's June 2016 purchase of Finnish gaming publisher Supercell ranked first as the biggest video game industry acquisition with a deal size of 8.6 billion U.S. dollars. Supercell is a mobile game company and the developer and publisher of the top-grossing mobile title Clash of Clans. Microsoft also made news in September 2020 when announcing that the tech giant had acquired video game holding company ZeniMax for 7.5 billion U.S. dollars. This deal subsequently made Microsoft the owner of ZeniMax-owned id Software, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, as well as publisher Bethesda Softworks with its Bethesda Game Studios, and ZeniMax Online Studios.
Crypto trader Binance ranked among the largest cryptocurrency exchangers in the world in 2022, with trading volume that was several times as high as ZG.com. Binance.KR - an exchange specifically for Korean users - saw a big surge in trading volume at the end of December 2020. It is unclear why this happened, although Binance announced to the closure of the Korean service on December 24, 2020: new registrations were allowed up until that day, trading would stop on January 10th and the hard shutdown would occur on January 29th.
As of December 16, 2021, the United Kingdom had reported the highest number of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant cases, with around 2,957 cases. This statistic presents the number of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant cases worldwide as of December 16, 2021, by country or territory.
In 2021, it was estimated that YouTube Mr. Beast (Jimmy Donaldson) ranked first as the top-earning YouTuber worldwide with earnings of approximately 54 million U.S. dollars. Jake Paul ranked second, with an estimate of 45 million U.S. dollars earned during the last measured year. Sixth-ranked Anastasia Radzinskaya, who goes by Nastya on her various channels, is seven years old and earned 28 million U.S. dollars in the past year, surpassing YouTuber Ryan Kaji for the first time. Created in 2005, YouTube has become one of the most popular social networks worldwide. As of the first quarter of 2015, the global penetration rate among the online population was 81 percent. As of December 2020, the most-subscribed YouTube channels did not only include popular music artists such as Justin Bieber but also video game commentators or comedy creators. Despite their professional video production values and full-time work commitment to YouTube videos, many of these current YouTube celebrity channels were based on user-generated content such as make-up tutorials, video game commentaries or comedy sketches. As of September, the most-viewed YouTube channel was Ryan ToysReview, featuring children’s toys.
IT spending worldwide is projected to reach about 4.45 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, a 5.1 percent increase in growth compared to 2021.
Smaller companies spending a greater share on hardware
According to the results of a survey conducted in July 2020, hardware projects account for a third of IT budgets across North America and Europe. Larger companies tend to allocate a smaller share of their budget to hardware projects. Companies employing between one and 99 people allocated 31 percent of the budget to hardware, compared with 25 percent in companies of five thousand people or more. This could be explained by the greater need to spend money on managed services in larger companies.
Not all companies can reduce their spending
While COVID-19 has the overall effect of reducing IT spending, not all companies will face the same experiences. Setting up employees to comfortably work from home can result in unexpected costs, as can adapting to new operational requirements. In a recent survey of IT buyers, 18 percent of the respondents said they expected their IT budgets to increase in 2020.
For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.
The inflation rate in the European Union reached 5.3 percent in November 2021, the highest rate of inflation recorded in the provided time period. Prior to 2021, the inflation rate in the EU peaked at 4.4 percent in July of 2008 and was lowest in January 2015, when prices were shrinking by 0.5 percent.
In December 2021, the average price of the OPEC basket was 74.38 U.S. dollars per barrel. This was a decrease compared to the previous month, but still notably higher than earlier this year. Figures have been trading upwards following a supply shortage of gas and coal coupled with growing energy demand by economies climbing out of a pandemic-induced slump. The OPEC basket is a weighted average of prices for petroleum blends produced by OPEC countries. OPEC stands for “Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries,” and was founded in 1960 in Baghdad, Iraq. The main aim of OPEC is to coordinate the oil policies of its members, and thus to have more influence on the international oil market. It is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices.
The OPEC basket oil price
The OPEC crude oil price is defined by the price of the so-called OPEC (reference) basket. This basket is an average of the prices of petroleum blends that are produced by the OPEC members. The following countries are members of this organization: Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and the United Arab Emirates. Some of these oil blends are, for example: Saharan Blend from Algeria, Basra Light from Iraq, and Arab Light from Saudi Arabia. The OPEC reference basket includes both heavy and light crude oils, and is heavier than most other crude oil mixtures (benchmarks). OPEC's oil production amounted to 30.6 million barrels per day in 2020.
Oil price benchmarks
The OPEC basket is one of the most crucial benchmarks for crude oil prices worldwide. Other significant benchmarks are UK Brent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), and Dubai Crude (Fateh). Because there are many types and grades of oil, such benchmarks are indispensable for referencing them on the global oil market. Looking at the OPEC price within the last year, the lowest price was 17.66 U.S. dollars per barrel in April 2020, a result of over-supply and storage fears.
At nearly 22 billion U.S. dollars, the 2014 initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba Group Holding Limited remains the largest IPO in the United States ever. Trailing by almost four billion U.S. dollars, Visa takes second place, followed by ENEL SpA, an energy company based in Italy.
What is an IPO?
An IPO is when a private company offers shares to the public for the first time through a stock exchange. Companies do this to raise money, as seen with Alibaba. However, public companies are subject to more scrutiny, such as publishing quarterly reports for investors. Also, not all IPOs are profitable. A bad IPO can result in significant losses.
Companies that could go public
Unicorns are private companies valued over a billion U.S. dollars. Any of these could go public, raising significant funds. However, most IPOs are valued in the millions, not billions. The median deal size of these offerings in the United States tends to be a little more than 100 million U.S. dollars. Investors keep a watch for the next IPO, since a strong offering means high returns for those who buy the stock early.
As of January 10, 2022, 98.8 percent of adults in Denmark had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. According to the manufacturers of the majority of COVID-19 vaccines currently in use in Europe, being fully vaccinated is when a person receives two doses of the vaccine. In Ireland, 94 percent of adults had received a full course of the COVID-19 vaccination, as well as 93.2 percent of those in Portugal had been fully vaccinated. On the other hand, only 33.4 percent of adults in Bulgaria had been fully vaccinated.
Furthermore, the seven-day rate of cases across Europe shows which countries are currently worst affected by the situation. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.
According to the monitoring data from the Embassy of the United States, there was on average 40.5 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic meter to be found in the air in Beijing during 2021. The air quality has improved considerably over recent years.
Reasons for air pollution in Beijing
China’s capital city Beijing is one of the most populous cities in China with over 20 million inhabitants. Over the past 20 years, Beijing’s GDP has increased tenfold. With the significant growth of vehicles and energy consumption in the country, Beijing’s air quality is under great pressure from the economic development. In the past, the city had a high level of coal consumption. Especially in winter, in which coal consumption increased due to heating, the air quality could get extremely bad on the days without wind. In spring, the wind from the north would bring sand from Mongolian deserts, resulting in severe sandstorms in Beijing. The bad air quality also affected the air visibility and threatened people’s health. On days with very bad air quality, people wearing masks for protection can be seen on the streets in the city.
Methods to improve air quality in Beijing
Over the past years, the government has implemented various methods to improve the air quality in Northern China. Sandstorms, which were quite common 15 years ago, are now rarely seen in Beijing’s spring thanks to afforestation projects on China’s northern borders. The license-plate lottery system was introduced in Beijing to restrict the growth of private vehicles. Large trucks were not allowed to enter certain areas in Beijing. Above all, the coal consumption in Beijing has been restricted by shutting down industrial sites and improving heating systems. Beijing’s efforts to improve air quality has also been highly praised by the UN as a successful model for other cities. However, there is also criticism pointing out that the improvement of Beijing’s air quality is based on the sacrifice of surrounding provinces (including Hebei), as many factories were moved from Beijing to other regions. Besides air pollution, there are other environmental problems like water pollution that China is facing. The industrial transformation is the key to China’s environmental improvement.
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