Activision Blizzard
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| Activision Blizzard | |
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: ATVI) |
| Founded | 2008 (merger pending) |
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, CA[1] |
| Industry | Computer and video games |
| Products | Call of Duty series Diablo series Guitar Hero series StarCraft series Tony Hawk's series Warcraft series |
| Parent | Vivendi |
| Website | http://www.activisionblizzard.com/ |
Activision Blizzard, Inc. will be an American video game developer and publisher, subsidiary of the French conglomerate Vivendi SA. The company is the result of a merge between Activision and Vivendi Games, announced on December 2, 2007[2] in a deal worth USD$18.8 billion.[3]
With the new organization using the brand names of Activision and the Vivendi-owned Blizzard Entertainment, the companies expect that the merge will be complete by mid 2008.[4] The company believes that the merging of the two companies will create "the world’s largest and most profitable pure-play video game publisher".[5] It believes that it is the only publisher that has "leading market positions across all categories" of the video game industry.[5]
The merger is currently pending approval from stockholders and government agencies. In April 2008, the European Commission gave permission for the merger to take place.[6] The Commission essentially needed to approve that there weren't any antitrust issues in the mega-merger.
[edit] History
In December 2007, it was announced that Activision would merge with fellow games developer and publisher Vivendi Games.
René Penisson, currently a member of the Management Board of Vivendi and Chairman of Vivendi Games, will serve as Chairman of Activision Blizzard. Bobby Kotick, head of Activision will become President and CEO of Activision Blizzard.
Vivendi will be the majority shareholder holding between 52% and 68% (depending on the results of the tender offer). The rest of the shares will be held by a number of institutional and private investors and will continue to be traded on the NASDAQ exchange as ATVI.
[edit] References
- ^ Activision - Corporate Info from Activision's official website
- ^ Activision, Vivendi (2007-12-02). "Vivendi and Activision to create Activision Blizzard – World’s Largest, Most Profitable Pure-Play Video Game Publisher". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-12-02.
- ^ Video game giants in $18bn merger. BBC (December 02, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
- ^ FAQ for Activision Blizzard. Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
- ^ a b Fact sheet (PDF). Activision Blizzard. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
- ^ EU greenlights Activision-Vivendi merger
[edit] External links
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