Activision acquires Treyarch

Activision has announced that it has acquired Treyarch Invention. The company, which has worked on such games as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Spider-Man for the Dreamcast, will now become one of Activision's internal studios working on action and action-sports games. Under the agreement, Treyarch will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, and its employees will receive 545,974 shares of Activision common stock.

"Treyarch is an outstanding developer with an experienced management team and a very talented group of programmers, designers, and artists,'' said Ron Doornink, president and COO of Activision. "The company's multiplatform development capabilities and proprietary cross-platform technologies complement Activision's rich brands--making them a natural fit.''

"We are tremendously pleased to be a part of Activision,'' said Don Likeness, president of Treyarch. "We look forward to developing the best action and action-sports games available and are confident that our multiplatform development strengths will contribute to Activision's ongoing success and leadership in the console marketplace.''

Treyarch is currently developing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x, Spider-Man: The Movie, Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder 2, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, and Minority Report for Activision.