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A New Indie: Activision Blizzard in $8.2 Billion Deal to Buy Back Stake From Vivendi

S

Saintguine

Member
Smart move in the long run considering Vivendi is leaking money like a hemophiliac leaks blood, not to mention that Vivendi is also a vampire that leeches off its holdings because it is losing a shitload of money fast.
 
D

duckroll

Member
So the Vivdendi dividend plan forced their hand and they're finally making their play. 8 billion dollars. Holy hell. :)
 
jediyoshi

jediyoshi

Member
JIfLGLr.jpg


Hell of a photo
 
V

Valnen

Member
So could Blizzard in theory separate from Activision-Blizzard and be more free than they've been in forever? I mean the holding company was Vivendi's doing right?
 
Auto_aim1

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
That's pretty much all the money they've made from CoD games so far, and more. I think it's good for Activision, now they have to carefully plan their future.
 
A

antitrop

Member
This is fucking awesome.

I think that 5 billion in debt will evaporate pretty quickly if they can continue their insane success. And why wouldn't they?
 
D

Doc Holliday

SPOILER: Columbus finds America
The group of investors led by Mr. Kotick and Mr. Kelly — which also includes Davis Advisors, Leonard Green & Partners and Tencent — is expected to have roughly a 24.9 percent stake in the company. Mr. Kotick and Mr. Kelly have personally committed $100 million.
Click to expand...

Say what??? Tencent? as in LoL tencent?
 
J

jtb

Banned
so what does this mean for the future of Blizzard? will they be under the Activision umbrella or not?
 
H

Hey You

Member
Valnen said:
So could Blizzard in theory separate from Activision-Blizzard and be more free than they've been in forever? I mean the holding company was Vivendi's doing right?
Click to expand...
They are apart of the holding company, they would have to buy themselves out.
 
S

Syf

Banned
Awesome news! I didn't like what I was hearing about Vivendi lately. It's for the best to separate before they started leeching cash from Activision Blizzard. Next I'd like to see Blizzard split from Activision (unless they essentially are their own company after this? Not sure how that works now).
 
P

PlanetSmasher

Banned
Is it bad that I kind of hope the Call of Duty bubble bursts and this sinks the company? As much as it'd suck for those people to lose their jobs, the industry losing Activision would be an amazing shake-up.
 
K

KorrZ

Member
I think this is a very smart move for them. I imagine Destiny is going to be huge for them, not to mention the first real designed for next-gen COD.
 
D

duckroll

Member
I have changed the title so people don't get confused. Activision Blizzard is buying themselves out, Activision and Blizzard are not splitting. :p
 
E

Eusis

Member
pa22word said:
Reading that venturebeat article and it seems this leaves A/B in debt to the tune of $4.6 billion. Ouch.
Click to expand...
Given how money keeps getting drawn from them I'm guessing this is like ripping off the band-aid. We'll see how this ends up going.
 
C

Cake Boss

Banned
Vivendi forced Activision into this move. The company, which at one point owned more than 60 percent of Activision, was attempting to squeeze a special one-time dividend out of the game maker. On Monday, Vivendi announced it would begin talks to force through a $3 billion dividend. That would have zapped cash directly from Activision’s cash horde and helped patch up Vivendi’s $17 billion in debt.

Activision clearly had other plans in mind.
Click to expand...

Basically Vivendi acted like the broke ass loser gambling father who came to borrow some money to get out of debt, Activision said fuck you I am moving out.
 
J

jtb

Banned
PlanetSmasher said:
Is it bad that I kind of hope the Call of Duty bubble bursts and this sinks the company? As much as it'd suck for those people to lose their jobs, the industry losing Activision would be an amazing shake-up.
Click to expand...

judging by EA, it'd lead to a year or two of good things before everything goes back to shit again.
 
M

Madness

Member
Activision Blizzard as an entity are buying themselves back from Vivendi. It's actually great because you have a games company buy itself back from a money hungry media corporation.
 
K

KaYotiX

Banned
PlanetSmasher said:
Is it bad that I kind of hope the Call of Duty bubble bursts and this sinks the company? As much as it'd suck for those people to lose their jobs, the industry losing Activision would be an amazing shake-up.
Click to expand...

Will never happen. Every year ppl say CoD is dead, every year it sell more and more.

That and WoW is a money printing machine. Anything Blizz releases sells a ton so I couldn't see them sink ever.
 
O

Onion_Relish

Member
so what does this mean for the stock, its going to tank right? i thought that was going to happen with ea but they went up big time....
 
K

Kunan

Member
This is great! What Vivendi was going to do to them was nuts. Glad to see them put their foot forward to escape the shitty situation and work as a free company.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
Bobby Kotick may be a guy who's been hated for a long time, but he's been head of Activision for over 22 years now. That's a long time. And to be able to afford that kind of buyout, you can see why he's still there... he's clearly very good at what he does, even if gamers all hate him for it. :p
 
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