Acitivison's parent company, Vivendi, is selling its majority stake of Activision Blizzard Inc. — home of mega-franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Diablo III.
Vivendi, the meda and telecommunications giant who owns the Canal+ Group, and the Universal Music Group among others, has a hefty 61 percent stake in the videogame publisher.
Just how much does 61 percent of Activision Blizzard cost? Try a staggering $8.1 billion! According to Bloomberg's anonymous source, Paris-owned Vivendi is not looking to sell Activision or Blizzard piece-meal, so in the event that no company steps up to bid, Vivendi plans to sell a partial holding on the open market.
This sale stems from investors' pressure to restructure Vivendi and boost its stock price from a nine-year low. In relation to this, Vivendi Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou has ousted former CEO Jean-Bernard Levy, who was opposed to major changes in Vivendi's corporate structure.
Activision, considered to be the largest videogame publisher in the world, has seen its shares decline 2.7 percent this year. However, the publisher has $3.48 million in cash and short-term investments (as of March 31, 2011), and has no debt.
So, what does this mean for us, videogame people? I honestly don't know yet since I don't even know of a company that has $8 billion to throw around. Maybe Apple and Microsoft? But Apple already disclosed publicly that they're not looking into videogames and Microsoft could potentially buy the publisher, but if that means going Xbox-only, that will surely limit its profability and counteract whhy they'd consider buying Activision in the first place.
Who would you want to buy Activision Blizzard? Can anyone even pony up $8 billion at this point in the economy?