Valve has to be worth way more than a billion dollars. A billion is like medium-stage startup at this point. They have to be worth 10x that easy, as a floor. Much higher (100x) for a strategic acquisition from a company like Microsoft.
"Much higher (100x) for a strategic acquisition from a company like Microsoft" is grossly exaggerated. There were only 171 companies worth more than $88.3bn (<100x a billion) as of December [1], a number that may have even dropped during current market conditions. Activision Blizzard is worth today ~$60bn and Microsoft is buying it at ~$68bn [2]. It's one the largest acquisitions they've made, and the largest publicly known amount by far [3] with LinkedIn (2016) second at $26bn.
Agree that Valve is likely worth at least 10x a billion, though.
Interesting, I've never considered the value/valuation/profits to be a part of what makes a corporation large or not, but mainly focused on just the size of the organization. So a corporation could go from small -> medium -> large without even changing the headcount?
It's about the amount of power and influence you can wield. In a discussion like this, "large corporation" is just a shorthand. When it comes to the legal system everyone should be on equally footing. That they aren't is why these things are so upsetting.
