Activision claims top slot as Vivendi closes financing

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Jan 18, 2008 12:11 pm PT

Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III publisher does victory lap as French multinational locks down funding for Activision-Blizzard union.

Yesterday's year-end data dump from the NPD Group contained many smaller stories. One was that Activision is trumpeting the fact it was the US's top third-party publisher of console and handheld games during 2007. The Santa Monica-based publisher claimed a 17.7 percent share of the domestic non-PC game software market last year, up from 7.2 percent in 2006.

Activision gives the most credit for its success to a single franchise: Guitar Hero. Picked up for a now-bargain $100 million in 2006, the license was the top-selling property in 2007, thanks to the release of Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80, and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Citing NPD figures not released to the press, the publisher asserts that Guitar Hero III "was the number one title across all platforms in both units and dollars" in 2007 and the number one game in December. When all platforms are combined, the number three game for the month was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from Activision-owned developer Infinity Ward.

"For the first time in our history, we were the number-one U.S. publisher for the calendar year," crowed Activision Chairman and CEO Robert Kotick in a not-so-veiled reference to Electronic Arts. "We are well on our way to delivering 16 years of record revenue growth and by far our most profitable year ever." During the fiscal year that ended last March, the company had revenues of $1.5 billion, but just $85.8 million in net income--aka profit--thanks to a massive investment in development.

But even as Kotick touted his company's dominance of the console and handheld markets, preparations were being made for the union that will put Activision and the top maker of PC games under the same corporate roof. Reuters reports that in Paris, French multinational conglomerate Vivendi has secured a loan of 3.5 billion euros ($5.13 billion) to partially assist in bankrolling the purchase of its controlling stake in soon-to-be superpublisher Activision Blizzard.

Underwritten by several banks, the loan will include 1.5 billion euros ($2.19 billion) for the unrelated purchase of an Internet services provider, and another 2 billion being handed out in timed intervals. According to Reuters, Vivendi has already acquired credit lines totaling nearly 4 billion euros ($5.84 billion) to help it acquire a controlling stake in Activision Blizzard, which will have an estimated value of $18.8 billion.

46 Comments

  • gamfaqs2gamfaqs

    Posted Feb 2, 2008 4:17 pm PT

    Activision Blizzard, thats going to take time to get used to

  • Zendric

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 2:55 pm PT

    @Monco

    Actually, he is mostly right. In most nations in Europe that use the Euro, the plural is simply "Euro". NO plural S is added. Things simply cost 5 euro, 20 euro, etc. Many english speakers will add a plural s, such as in ireland, and that is not wrong either. Basically, both can be correct, its more of a local difference.

  • bombfanatic

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 12:03 pm PT

    COD4 is still makin headlines. bery nice

  • juan99692k6

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 10:31 am PT

    Call of duty should have only one developer period.!! which one has achieved the best quality in the games? Infinity so, infinity should be the only developer. I'm sorry Treyarch but you should stick the web on your spider man games

  • CCFruit

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 9:42 pm PT

    5% operating profit. Who would have thought the software entertainment industry would be a low-margin business. If I bust my ass for a billion and a half in sales, I better at least take home 100 million. I wonder why the french want to buy into a low margin business like that. They must see huge growth potential or something. I wonder what EA's operating profit margin is?

  • okassar

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 3:23 pm PT

    Call of Duty 4 was amazing,I rented it and I wish I bought it.Great multiplayer and campaign that like changes your life...kind of.Certainly one of the best games ever.

  • zeke2040

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 11:35 am PT

    i can careless, we want our games now...lol

  • metalisticpain

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 3:58 am PT

    GOOD! glad EA doesnt get rewarded for loading out the shovel ware and sports game 0x

  • LastRenshai

    Posted Jan 21, 2008 7:59 pm PT

    @ vicsrealms
    Not every console-type gamer is bad. (though i admit the the ratio of "behaved" console gamers isn't great

  • vicsrealms

    Posted Jan 21, 2008 10:48 am PT

    lol, sophospeare. Americans love an underdog, but I don't think anyone will stoop that low. I don't even want to contemplate WoW on a console system. I remember the horrors of playing with console gamers in FFXI. I don't even want to go through that with WoW.

  • sophospeare

    Posted Jan 21, 2008 8:23 am PT

    EA....is an underdog???? I hope this doesn't mean I have to stop hating them!

  • Agermemnon

    Posted Jan 21, 2008 3:58 am PT

    Hmm i wonder if they will do WOW for consoles now ? xlive has 10million users now although the conan hyborian adventures is on its way to 360 i feel the console formats could use a mmo ( a good mmo not that crap that is about at the moment on them ) .

  • monco59

    Posted Jan 21, 2008 2:51 am PT

    @ Quintinius:

    "It's spelt "euro" for plural, not "euros"."

    Actually, the plural is euros and NOT euro. *snickers*

  • _MEDUSA_

    Posted Jan 21, 2008 2:49 am PT

    great! wonder what activision will bring to the warcraft series and W.O.W.

  • Chief_Kuuni

    Posted Jan 20, 2008 8:44 pm PT

    not bad at all, sounds good

  • aaronannie68

    Posted Jan 20, 2008 2:39 pm PT

    Kudos to the group at Activision. Good move.

  • ChinoJamesKeene

    Posted Jan 20, 2008 10:02 am PT

    We can only hope they treat their purchases with respect, unlike EA.

  • erict702

    Posted Jan 19, 2008 9:17 pm PT

    I guess?

    i wounder if it would be great tho.

  • SPD_WeBmAsTaH

    Posted Jan 19, 2008 6:23 pm PT

    Sounds juicy.

  • Nintendo_Ownes7

    Posted Jan 19, 2008 1:36 pm PT

    @dannymalt Activision didn't steal Guitar Hero because Harmonix never owned Guitar Hero, Red Octane owned Guitar Hero Harmonix just developed it, and Activision bought Red Octane and MTV Games bought Harmonix.

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