In a recent twist of events, Activision and Vivendi Games are merging to form the Worlds largest third party publisher. EA must be chewing at the bit right about now with four out of the top five selling PC games of all time being Blizzard titles.
It’s all well and good glorifying the take over but what are the actual fine details? Well I took the time to compile relevantinformation into a convenient little post for you all to mull over.
About Activision
Activision is one of the worlds leading developers, publishers and distributors of interactive entertainment products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31st 2007.
- #1 Console Gaming Brand – Guitar Hero – 2007
- Highly rated blockbuster, Call of Duty
- 10 multi-million unit selling franchises
- Stable of 12 developmetn studios
- Pipeline includes: Call of Duty 5, Guitar Hero 4, James Bond, new Tony Hawk, new, DreamWorks title, new Marvel titles and entry into racing with Bizzare
About Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games is the #1 developer of subscription-based Massively Multiplayer Online Games and Multiplatform Interactive Entertainment titles. Vivendi Games has four divisions comprising of Sierra Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Online and Vivendi Mobile.
- Key franchises include World of Warcraft, Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo as well as Spyro and Crash Bandicoot.
Blizzard Entertainment
- Highest margins in the industry (>40%)
- 4 out of 5 best-selling PC games of all time
- Over 56 million units sold since 1995
- Largest Online Gaming Community: 9 million+ subscribers world wide.
Merger Details
Not wanting to drown you with technicalities, I have taken the most important points and compiled them into a list. This should give you an impression of how the company will lay itself out before the world.
- Vivendi will contribute Vivendi Games and its subsidiaries to Activision who will, in turn, provide Vivendi with 295.3 million additional newly issued shares in Activision, implying an $8.1 billion valuation for Vivendi Games.
- Vivendi will purchase a further 62.9 million newly issued Activision Shares for a total of $1.7 billion
- Vivendi will own 52% - 68% of Activision Blizzard with the rest of the stock being diluted between current Activision shareholders
- Activision and Blizzard will continue to operate as separate publishing label with Activision Blizzard operating as the corporate identity and not publishing identity of either company
Approval and Conditions
The merger is subject to approval by Activision shareholders as well as customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.
So what does this all mean for us Blizzard fans? Well nothing apparently. Mike Morhaime, CEO and President of Blizzard Entertainment was quick to squash the conjecture that Blizzard and Activision would be dropped as publishing labels, stating that Blizzard would continue to develop and publish its own titles as will Activision.
All this means is that Blizzard and Activision will have more financial security as they will be making more money than any other third party publisher, including that which is God - EA.
