It's funny how things pan out. A few days after Activision Blizzard bought itself out of global media conglomerate Vivendi to become independent, we learn they got help from another global media conglomerate, Tencent Holdings, to do so.
What is Tencent Holdings? Dipping their toes in Internet, phone, and mass media services, Tencent is one of the business giants in China. Among their businesses in China are social networking, instant messenger, online payment, auction site, P2P, search engine, web browser, microblogging, online payment, and the headline grabbing WeChat, a voice and text messaging service rivalling LINE.
Even more impressive is Tencent's diversified investments in the gaming industry. Tencent entered gaming in earnest in 2008, launching a host of MMOs and casual games including CrossFire, Dungeon & Fighter, Xunxian, QQ Fantasy, QQ Tang, QQ Three Kingdoms and many others. Separate to this is their mobile platform, unified this year from all their different business so that they can offer the same games, for example, on WeChat and QZone, their social network.
It was Tencent's impressive success in China alone that prompted them to look abroad for more investment prospects in the gaming industry. Fortunately for Western developers, Tencent has an interest in bringing Western games back into China. With this in mind, they have both partnered with and invested in these gaming companies.
So, the notable acquisitions were investing $ 400 million into Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, in 2011, taking a minority stake in Epic Games, developer of Infinity Blade and Gears of War, last year, and just now, joining the acquisition group comprised of Bobby Kotick, Brian Kelly, and others to take 25 % ownership in Activision Blizzard.
Kotick came out to downplay Tencent's role in the acquisition, describing them as a 'passive investor' and explaining that the acquisition group they are both a part of does not get to hold any seats in the company's board of directors.
This should be no surprise, given that Tencent actively plays with everyone. Tencent's licensees for Chinese distribution? Activision's Call of Duty, EA's FIFA and Take-Two Interactive's NBA games.
It is no exagerration to say Tencent is one of the biggest gaming related companies in the world today.
