Activision Blizzard merger official

Business combination that unites Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft under one roof is now a done deal.

It's official: Activision Inc. and Vivendi Games are now defunct nomenclature. After shareholders handily signed off on the merger at a meeting yesterday, French megacorp Vivendi SA and Activision said today that they had completed the transaction to create Activision Blizzard. The newly formed company will retain Activision's current headquarters in Santa Monica, California.

"We have created the world leader in online and console games with this transaction, and the combined strengths of the two businesses offer immense growth potential," gushed Vivendi SA CEO Jean-Bernard Levy. "I am also very confident that, with the new leadership team in place, the new entity is perfectly positioned to take advantage of these rapidly developing markets across the globe."

Former top Activision man and newly installed Activision Blizzard president and CEO Robert Kotick issued an equally glowing statement, vaunting the publisher's prime position in the console and online PC space. "With more than 10.7 million subscribers on World of Warcraft, and with tens of millions of people playing Guitar Hero, Activision Blizzard's games are transcending the traditional stereotypes and are more popular as a form of entertainment than ever before," he said. "We look forward to building upon our brands to create value for our shareholders, customers, and consumers."

With the merger now closed, Activision Blizzard is expected to surpass publishing kingpin Electronic Arts as the world's most lucrative third-party game-software publisher. As per today's announcement, the business combination brings together a number of top-selling franchises under one roof. Considering statistics from a variety of global stat-tracking organizations, those number-one ranked brands include Guitar Hero for family entertainment and music-based gaming, World of Warcraft in subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games, Spider-Man in superhero games, Tony Hawk in the action sports genre, Cabela's in sports hunting, and Call of Duty in first-person action.

As per the original terms of the deal first announced in December, Vivendi SA has contributed the entirety of its Vivendi Games subdivision--worth $8.1 billion--as well as $1.7 billion to acquire a 52 percent controlling stake in Activision Blizzard. The French megacorp will in the next few days attempt to expand its hold to a possible 68 percent through a $4 billion all-cash tender offer, made to current Activision shareholders at the agreed-upon price of $27.50 per share.

Although that buyout offer was a handsome premium on Activision's approximately $21-per-share sticker price in December, it is unlikely that Vivendi will find many takers in the present. Activision's stock has maintained a steady climb since the merger was initially announced, and as of press time today, the publisher's stock was trading in excess of $32 on the NASDAQ exchange. Activision Blizzard will continue to operate as a publicly traded company on NASDAQ under the ATVI ticker symbol after the merger.

102 Comments

  • Leo_Colt

    Posted Jul 14, 2008 7:44 am PT

    DCFanatic: "Why not merge with EA. They might be huge like Activision, but they actually care about the consumer, unlike the money-obsessed Activision."
    ----
    Ugh. You know NOTHING. EA does NOT care about their consumers. They release their products in unfinished beta states, release patches that break the game even more (or not even release them at all) and scam people out of their money (see The Sims 2 Store - $1 for everything you buy, which can total three times the price of buying just one of the 50 gajillion expansionpacks). Trust me, EA are far FAR worse than Activision.

  • tyzwain

    Posted Jul 13, 2008 3:51 am PT

    Awesome. Activision Blizzard will have a European root, along with Ubisoft, Eidos & Sci. This can only be good for gaming.

  • combatsoldier

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 11:36 pm PT

    this was good and will help blizzard capitalize there expanding empire even further and make even more money. Good move by blizzard.

  • Glitchhawk

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 10:28 pm PT

    catcher6250: lol yea wooot activizzard or Blizzvision ftw //////////////////////////////////////// does this mean Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 will get cross-platform WOW now? haha dont we all wanna know /sigh

  • gandalf_storm

    Posted Jul 12, 2008 4:09 pm PT

    World of Frostbite or Riverraid anyone ?

  • Gifted_One

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 3:02 pm PT

    Now we can look forward to probably one of the most trusted publisher ever. One that is not a monopoly in its genre(EA and its NFL Liscenses). Now the games will probably be even better with the flux of money available. My hopes are high for Activision Blizzard's and I put my money on them becoming more respectable and trusted than ever before.

  • enoslives7

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 2:53 pm PT

    I love it !!! Hopefully they will crush EA under their heel.

  • Xbot_720

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 11:47 am PT

    R.I.P. Blizzard

  • catcher6250

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 11:20 am PT

    activizzard rarrr

  • EvilAshTwin

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 11:05 am PT

    haha this is almost the exact same reason that Viacom is currently suing Youtube.

  • Agreb91

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 8:53 am PT

    Finally EA is no longer the big dog.

  • raze-boi

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 8:47 am PT

    Congratz, ActiveLizzard sounds good!

  • NA3D

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 6:21 am PT

    DCFanatic, you must not play many EA games, because if you want to see a sell out type of company, EA is the place. They recycle the same game so much that their employees actually only spend maybe a month just to update textures, program in a minor feature, and remove a major feature. Then if you look at the 3D models, you see that they are the exact same, and half of the time with the same texture from the year before, just different lighting for this year....

    (EA = Excessive Avarice)

    EA is far worse than Activision, though Activision is still up there in the evil kingdom. EA is like the ruler of all of hell, while Activision is like the leader of the demons of hell. Even with the Activision/Blizz-Viv merger, they are not as big as EA company worth wise. So yeah once EA finishes with TakeTwo and Ubisoft, they will be even further ahead than Actizard. (haha, I dont hate it gpvs)

    EA is more evil just because they are buying out as many companies as they are as fast as they are. I swear after Ubi and TTwo they will be going after THQ.

  • gpvs

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 5:08 am PT

    Activision + Blizzard = ActiZard

  • javierkatana

    Posted Jul 11, 2008 1:14 am PT

    Also, Bill gates asked "why we dont have something like the ipod?, We got the resources, lets make it happen." 3 years later...

    Why they cant embrace a partner with such high costumer satisfaction, and develop a joint venture? So they get a a good deal from itunes and Apple gets quality games instead of accepting the crap from EA. Also with 8 million iphone sales in 2009, a $20 guitar hero for iphones, sounds like big cash.

    DCFanatic pls die or get educated

    The name could be Blizzion o Acti Blizz (jmm this sounds like a deodorant feature)

  • JimmyJimJim

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 10:31 pm PT

    DCFANATIC Quote "Well Blizzard totally sold out. Such a good company merging with such evil. Why not merge with EA. They might be huge like Activision, but they actually care about the consumer, unlike the money-obsessed Activision."

    You're an idiot EA couldn't careless about the consumer they release crap game after crap game and if any other company starts becoming an annoyance they either buy them out or they just buy out the license to that genre "like they did with the NFL". You're comments are beyond reasoning which makes me seriously contemplate whether you have a fully functioning brain. As for Activision Blizzard, Hell yeah bring it ON EA you got a company looking to take you out!.

  • ThreeVo

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 9:23 pm PT

    DCFANATIC Quote "Well Blizzard totally sold out. Such a good company merging with such evil. Why not merge with EA. They might be huge like Activision, but they actually care about the consumer, unlike the money-obsessed Activision."

    these are the type of comments that annoy me... First of all Vivendi is the parent company of Blizzard.... THEY called this shot... not Blizzard entertainment.. learn the industry or at least read somthing in relevence b4 posting incoherent comments like that..

    This is for the better, maybee not directly so much for Blizz them selves but as one entity, this will be a major comepitor to EA by far.

    Take two should go with them, not EA lol XD just kidding, but that would sure make EA enraged... not sure about all the regulations with buyouts and such and even if take two is allowed to do that..

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 8:53 pm PT

    BlizzVision FTW!

  • Megawizard1

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 8:39 pm PT

    "Why not merge with EA. They might be huge like Activision, but they actually care about the consumer"

    lol?

  • Wet_Sand

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 8:19 pm PT

    Activision is better than EA.

  • DCFanatic posted Jul 10, 2008 7:11 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    DCFanatic

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 7:11 pm PT (hide)

    Well Blizzard totally sold out. Such a good company merging with such evil. Why not merge with EA. They might be huge like Activision, but they actually care about the consumer, unlike the money-obsessed Activision.

  • combatsoldier

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 7:01 pm PT

    This was a great merger and both companies will see even more money now because of it.

  • SonicRaptor

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 6:09 pm PT

    Just get it over with and call it "BlizzVision" or something, Activision Blizzard just sounds lazy. Then again, I'm sure they wanted to keep their brand names around.

  • Videogamefan123

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 5:53 pm PT

    They should call it Blizzvision

  • Bulldog19892

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 5:44 pm PT

    I hope it doesn't effect the quality of any of the games.

  • Droopeh

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 5:35 pm PT

    At least we can say Activision no longer sucks v_v

  • Blue-Paper

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 5:34 pm PT

    too...many...syllables

  • azizalbaker

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 5:28 pm PT

    HAHA SELL OUT! (jk)

  • lamprey263

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 5:23 pm PT

    Wasn't this news months ago?

  • -HaloHitman-

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 5:23 pm PT

    Is this a good idea?

  • morbid_man_guy

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 5:19 pm PT

    In one of the hotspot podcasts one of the gamespot ppl said they should be called BlizzardVision. I thought that name was cool.

  • bmaick

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:38 pm PT

    a better name can be: Activlizzard or Actiblizzard, you only switch the letters "b" for "v" and viceversa

  • brunnjon

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:36 pm PT

    "I liked videogaming better before we were worth a lot of money."

    Agreed. Now it's getting rather lame.

  • Fandango_Letho

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:30 pm PT

    Activision Blizzard is a super lame name. Remind me of the DragonBall fusions.

  • p3313mp33x

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:29 pm PT

    EA HQ: ......Nuclear launch detected.

  • Me2NiK

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:24 pm PT

    I liked videogaming better before we were worth a lot of money.

  • TheUnionForever

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:23 pm PT

    Is it just me, or did this come completely out of nowhere?

  • 1Gigabyteofram

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:17 pm PT

    Illidan versus Arthas on the Ultimate guitar battle for ultimate destiny.

  • rotnem

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:10 pm PT

    So close now in direct, global competition with EA. Hopefully this merger will help produce even better games then before, now that they have the resources under a single roof.

  • 123Dan123

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:09 pm PT

    Battlezone 3?

  • OfficialBed

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 4:05 pm PT

    that's so stupid!

  • thesaxmaniac

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:47 pm PT

    http://geroplia.myminicity.com/ind

  • mikewalsh69

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:46 pm PT

    @XB360PLAYER

    damm, you came up with the name first... oh well... great minds think alike

  • mikewalsh69

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:42 pm PT

    blizz-a-vision. i think that sounds good

  • Xbot_720

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:34 pm PT

    umm..... people are acting like this merger is a good thing. Let's compare the quality of games real quick: Spider-man 3 (Activision) vs. World of Warcraft (Blizzard). If you havent played eithier, let me assure you, there is no comparision in regards to quality because WoW is a million times better quality. (No flamming please, Im not comparing the games, just the quality of the product that each publisher makes)

  • wrecker10

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:21 pm PT

    What about ACTARD? (ACTivision + blizzARD)

  • kos1085

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:18 pm PT

    They should have a contest to come up with a new name for the company because most people will still refer to the company as Activision or Blizzard.

  • Livebythesword

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:05 pm PT

    A-Blizzard? I love it... This is only good news, well rounded merger on all sides this helps everyone. I am happy with this... No doubt with Blizzards help this company will reign supreme for many years.

  • Livebythesword

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:05 pm PT

    A-Blizzard? I love it... This is only good news, well rounded merger on all sides this helps everyone. I am happy with this... No doubt with Blizzards help this company will reign supreme for many years.

  • Briantb_2008

    Posted Jul 10, 2008 2:58 pm PT

    this really dosen't bug me at all. EA still trying to take over take-two bugs the hell out of me.

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