Vivendi known for the wildly popular World of Warcraft purchased a 52 percent controlling stake in Activision in a equity and cash deal totaling 9.8 billion.
Activision has a long list of hits running from Guitar hero to theTony Hawk Series. The combination of Vivendi’s 9.3 million World of Warcraft subscribers and Activision’s console lineup will be a force to reckon with. Activision should get a nice stock bump (ATVI) on an already beautiful stock run. This will certainly give EA Games some healthy competition although EA doesn’t seem all that nervous.
Jean-Bernard Levy, chairman and chief executive officer of Vivendi, pledged the deal “will unlock the value of Blizzard.”
Jeff Brown, spokesman for Electronic Arts: “We wish them luck. We look forward to the competition and believe that EA still has the strongest portfolio of perennial game franchises.”
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