Microsoft and Sony gaming consoles have brought their respective company’s businesses to a whole new level, based on each company’s latest earnings reports.

Microsoft reported revenue of $41.7 billion for its fiscal Q3 2021 — its best quarter in four years, helping bring its stock within 1% of the extremely rare $2 trillion market cap. 

Part of the reason? The meteoric rise of its gaming division. 

Microsoft launched its Xbox Series X|S console during the company’s fiscal Q2 in November and saw its first $5 billion quarter for gaming revenue. 

Tuesday’s earnings report revealed that Xbox hardware revenue grew 232% year-over-year in the first three months of 2021. Overall gaming revenue was down to $3.53 billion but was still a 50% increase over the same period last year.  

Estimates suggest Microsoft has probably sold around 5.8 million units of its new Xbox consoles, but the company doesn’t disclose exact hardware sales figures.

Sony, however, does — and the PlayStation 5 is flying off the shelves.

• Since its launch in November, 7.8 million units have been sold.
• It’s the company’s strongest console debut ever.

The Tokyo-based company released its latest earnings on Wednesday, reporting $82.5 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. Of that amount, $24.4 billion came from Sony’s Game & Network Services group.

Conor McGregor will be raising a glass to Proximo Spirits: The liquor brand just bought a $600 million majority stake in his Irish whiskey. 

That’s not a bad haul for a spirit that launched only three years ago. Originally called “Notorious,” Proper No. 12 has partnered with Becle-owned importer and distributor Proximo Spirits for distribution from the get-go. Becle, which also makes Jose Cuervo, has a market value of $8.88 billion.

Proximo has steadily grown its stake in Proper No. 12 from 20% to 49% — a majority stake with this latest deal.

The deal, which was rumored to be in the works last month, is worth around $350 million in new money because it includes the $250 million the Proper No. 12 team has already pocketed through its partnership with Proximo. 

That will be split primarily between McGregor, his agent Audie Attar of Paradigm Sports Management, and Ken Austin, an entrepreneur who founded the Tequila Avión brand.

Such rapid growth of Proper No. 12 is a testament to McGregor’s popularity:

• 213,800 cases were sold in 2019, its first full year.
• Sales grew 61% to 345,000 cases in 2019.

The brand, the fourth-most popular Irish whiskey in 2019, likely benefited from the similar demographics of Irish whiskey drinkers and UFC fans. 

McGregor, who was reportedly worth $120 million prior to this sale, has endorsement deals with Reebok, Beats by Dre, Monster Energy, and Bud Light. He’s predicted that he will be a billionaire by the time he’s 35 in 2023.

The Premier League is asking British authorities for approval to skip out on this year’s scheduled media rights auction and keep its $6.53 billion deal in place for the next three years.

Rolling over the deals would mean keeping current terms set with Comcast’s Sky Sports, BT Sport, the BBC, and Amazon. 

Those terms, agreed upon in 2018, are worth 10% less than the media deal before it. Avoiding the 2021 auction would provide a bit of security for a league expected to lose roughly $2.8 billion by the end of the season.

But the proposed rollover may draw complaints from networks and could even violate competition law.

In March, Kevin Meyer, chairman of DAZN, told CNBC that the company is interested in Premier League rights after acquiring domestic Serie A rights in Italy. Sky, which previously held the contract, bid $2.65 billion; DAZN beat them out with $2.95 billion. 

DAZN recently denied any involvement in the short-lived European Super League.

Last year, in response to a move that was, like the Super League, heavily protested by soccer fans, the Premier League removed its pay-per-view systems with BBC and Amazon and returned to only airing live broadcasts.