Did Markus Persson sell Minecraft and why?

Answer 1

Yes, he did. Notch, real name Markus, sold it to Microsoft.
Although he sold it for $2.5bn USD (£1.5bn), Markus told the media that the main reason for doing so was not for the money, but because he was uncomfortable with his success. He didn't like the constant media attention on his life. Markus told the media that he sold minecraft for the sake of his sanity and that he was not enjoying his position in the game's development any more. He simply just wants to be a computer programmer and not a famous businessman.

Here is a quote from an interview he did, where he explained that he sold Minecraft "for the sake of his sanity":
"I've become a symbol. I don't want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don't understand, that I don't want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm not a CEO. I'm a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter."
Click here to read that full interview.

He's not the only person to feel this way, for example, the creator of Flappy Bird also walked away from his game because the popularity was changing his life too much. Some people are just uncomfortable with huge changes, such as being unexpectedly thrust into the media spotlight, and Markus was one of them.

Answer 2

Yes, Notch did sell it. The $2 billion that Microsoft offered for him is as good reason as any for him to sell it.