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CEO Bobby Kotick has led an investor buyout of Activision-Blizzard from Vivendi. Under the terms of the buyout, Kotick and an investment group have purchased nearly $9 billion worth of stock shares from Vivendi. Activision-Blizzard will become an independently held company after the purchase is finalized.
With Vivendi no longer a major stakeholder, Activision Blizzard becomes an independent company led by Kotick and Kelly, whose investment group also includes Chinese operator Tencent, Davis Advisors and Leonard Green & Partners.
"These transactions together represent a tremendous opportunity for Activision Blizzard and all its shareholders, including Vivendi," said Kotick.
"We should emerge even stronger-an independent company with a best-in-class franchise portfolio and the focus and flexibility to drive long-term shareholder value and expand our leadership position as one of the world's most important entertainment companies. The transactions announced today will allow us to take advantage of attractive financing markets while still retaining more than $3 billion cash on hand to preserve financial stability."
During the quarterly investor's call, it was also revealed that World of Warcraft subscriptions have fallen to 7.7 million, down from the last report.
Read more at GamesIndustry.biz.
Comments
He's such a happy chappy.
Sad thing is this will likey but AB into debt, hope blizzard don't abondon their "done when it's done" attitude. But on the plus side there is now one less cook in the kitchen.
This ^
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Kotick's pretty much Satan himself so I doubt it'll get any better from here on out.
<childish, provocative and highly speculative banner about your favorite game goes here>
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
like D3? , the new Card game? or Titan?
i think the same. but now the majority of the shares will be owned by public so it can be a bit better than the way it is now. i hope it will be better. but for some reason i think we will see pay2win items in wow in game store even after keeping the game p2p. just a hunch.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
No he means that D3 was a crappy Game not an AAA game at all. the fact that it sold many doesnt make it a good game. From a financial POV it was success. But in the Gamers POV was the Fail of the century. and that will effect the future releases aka the financial as well.
The Card game is just that.....
The Titan is the major Vaporwave....
Yes they have and always had Money to burn.
...
They were going into debt anyways with Vivendi at the helm and piling debt onto them. At least this way, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
I am excited for Hearthstone... it's great fun.
Maybe we'll actually hear about Titan now.
And maybe the next WoW expansion won't continue the downward spiral.
I don't have faith in any of those outcomes, however.
Nope. $1.2B will be drained from the reserve with a new debt $4.6B added to facilitate for the deal. That means a net of +$1.8B cash will be saved from Vivendi's $3B special dividend proposal.
Still, a lot of working capital will be drained from ATVI's balance sheet and current and future projects will be affected.
One point of note is now ATVI is in the good hands of venture capitalists including Tencent. That should buy them a some time from going under.
""We should emerge even stronger-an independent company with a best-in-class franchise portfolio and the focus and flexibility to drive long-term shareholder value..."
Bla bla...
I only see the same old tired corporate bullshit as we have seen a million times before.
We won't hear about Titan until WoW dies, its only best for business.
WoW's next expansion however is something we will have to wait and see.
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