Vivendi continues sales climb

France-based media company posts 7.9 percent overall revenue growth, with games group spiking nearly 50 percent for the first nine months of '07.

As heavily laden as this year's release lineup may be, all the hot new releases can't keep Vivendi and its massively multiplayer online game juggernaut down. The France-based media company announced revenue of $22 billion for the first nine months of 2007, a year-over-year climb of 7.9 percent. For the third quarter ended September 30, Vivendi tallied revenue of $7.9 billion, a 10.9 percent rise over the same period in 2006.

Though several of its businesses achieved double digit growth, once again the biggest climber was Vivendi Games backed by the massively popular MMOG World of Warcraft. Vivendi Games posted $1 billion in revenue through September, a 49.8 percent rise over last year. Blizzard Entertainment's online fantasy role-playing game was again credited as the largest contributor, with Vivendi calling out strong sales of Burning Crusade, the Chinese version of which was recently rolled out. Vivendi claims the game currently boasts more than 9.3 million subscribers.

While Vivendi Games is making the largest percentile gains, it still by far contributes the least to Vivendi's portfolio. SFR, Vivendi's French mobile phone company, posted $9.7 billion for the first nine months, a 2.3 percent climb over the first nine months of 2006. Vivendi's French premium television operation Canal+ Group and worldwide music outfit Universal Media Group brought in near-equal revenue of $4.73 billion and $4.78 billion, respectively. Vivendi's Moroccan telecommunication company Maroc Telecom also posted significant gains of $2.6 billion, an increase of 17.1 percent year-over-year.

26 Comments

  • Realmjumper

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 4:32 pm PT

    Nuclear launch of 10 million subscribers detected... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Holy mother of god. (duke nukem voice) It's unstoppable.

    Seriously I never thought this MMO would reach close to 10 million. Looks like it can't be stopped, lol.

    p.s.
    haha at starcraft nuclear launch reference.

  • Dryker

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 8:14 pm PT

    Dude!? That's just insanity. Vivendi could smoke cigars wrapped in hundred dollar bills for breakfast.

  • BloodMist

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 8:10 pm PT

    Good for them.Can't wait for Starcraft 2!!!A Diablo 3 would also be nice, sure, after the very blah Hellgate:London.

  • blowtrees

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 3:54 pm PT

    Ballin.

    Can we get some Diablo 3 though?

  • mrkame16

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 6:39 am PT

    Billion Dollar Imdustry everyone's cakin it, except for Little engine that could (PS3) but didnt.

  • quincy0191

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 10:36 pm PT

    Blizzard FTW!

  • mashom

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 10:09 pm PT

    Defaulter lol, i dont think so.. mr Milliner..

  • sickside6

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 10:05 pm PT

    nice work vivendi

  • felshs

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 9:56 pm PT

    wow............22 billion, i wish i have a million dolllar

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 9:43 pm PT

    It's only a matter of time before it hits 10 million.

  • metalliod

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 8:55 pm PT

    Vivendi has risen to the top of the notch after their success of the WOW series.

  • googliagen

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 7:05 pm PT

    Vivendi games division might be posting a net loss without WoW but Vivendi is in no lack of money I can assure you.

    Blizzard needed cash, Vivendi needed a solid gaming studio
    Blizzard rocks game development, Vivendi has money coming out its ears

    The match worked well for them

  • coochie_kuta

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 6:23 pm PT

    i remember right before wc3 was released they were in a billion dollar debt. and i remember them nearly selling their games division. i bet they are glad they didnt. still cant say i care for them tho.

  • uklegendkiller

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 6:23 pm PT

    Well said TeamR

    I'm not one bit surprised by this at all Vivendi have published some of the best games in the last few years & in my veiw one of the best publishers in the industry and it wont be long before they over take EA as the number 1.

  • TeamR

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 6:06 pm PT

    @ctg867 - You obviously have no idea how big Vivendi is. Vivendi is a media conglomerate. That means they a HUUGE entity that owns ALOT of other companies. Do some research. They part own NBC and all those assets, Universal Music, and a mobile phone company that, as this article says, posted 9.7 billion for the first nine months. And thats just a sample of what Vivendi owns. They are one of the largest companies on the planet

  • ctg867

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 5:58 pm PT

    I swear, without WOW, Vivendi would be so bankrupt.

  • Chrome54

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:57 pm PT

    dead_god86, as a matter of fact, no, inactive accounts are not taken into account with these tallies. You are correct on the subscribers bit though, but there are still 9.3 million active subscriptions. I also imagine, given the abundance of character slots in World of Warcraft (10 per server, which is lots), a far smaller percentile of players have multiple World of Warcraft accounts than many other MMOs.

  • dchan01

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:28 pm PT

    Blizzard needs independence badly.

  • dead_god86

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:24 pm PT

    When it says 9.3 Million subscribers, i find that amazing, i only started playing Wow 18 months ago, adn it ws 4 mil then, also, you should take into account that this means, 9.3 million existing accounts, some people have multiple accounts, other's have quit the game and no longer pay for their account, however it still exists. Now i dont know if they actually take all of this into account, and ignore non-active accounts or not, but it dosnt' matter coz i'm sure of that 9.3 mil, i'm sure a S#!tload of ppl do play

  • teirdome

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:15 pm PT

    WoW is a worldwide phenomenon. I really wish I had bought VU stock all those years ago because after playing the Beta, I could easily see it becoming this.

  • DJ_Steady

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:14 pm PT

    wow... i never thought it would have so many users. That's great It's the way to make big bucks..

  • Land-0-Funk

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:10 pm PT

    9.3 million subscribers!..blown away by that

  • SCboy79S

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:10 pm PT

    Vivendi doesn't deserve Blizzard...

  • DonutTrooper

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:10 pm PT

    Shiny, shiny moneys. At least they have their claws on WoW they'll be pretty secure. And as long as it keeps up, it will mean the need for a company to make an MMO that can actually break into WoW's profits, not just say they will.

  • lordroy24

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:09 pm PT

    Jesus Blizzard. You know what, they shouldn't even call it Vivendi, it should just be Blizzard....period. lol

  • MasterChief725

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 4:06 pm PT

    Well...as long as WOW is out there, vivendi will make money

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