Haha, what? This can't be right, can it? Vivendi may be looking to sell off Activision-Blizzard in part or in full. Bloomberg reports that the potential sale of Activision-Blizzard will take place during their investor meeting on June 22nd in Paris.
Right now, Vivendi owns 61% of Activision-Blizzard and is looking to complete dump that ownership or at least a significant portion of it. For those keeping track at home, 61% equates to about $13.4 billion (USD) worth of company.
Activision-Blizzard has two mega releases coming out soon, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and the World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Last year alone, Activision-Blizzard had sales of $4.76 billion, earnings of $1.33 billion and a 4.5% gain in share price. Today alone, shares fell 3.3% after this announcement broke. Vivendi's stock has fallen 28% in the past year.
Vivendi also owns Universal Media Group, which I'm sure we're all somewhat familiar with.
The question now is, who will pick up Activision-Blizzard? In fact, which companies out there even have the financial means to pick up Activision-Blizzard if this happens? EA? Valve? Could you imagine if EA picks up Activision-Blizzard? Think of the future of Call of Duty, or perhaps the complete lack of it. Now imagine if Valve picks them up. Imagine a world where a new Call of Duty comes out once every decade! That might actually be amazing.
(via)
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