Blizzard Activision Merger!!!!

[Hutch]

What’ll a little under $19 billion result in? A merger of two of the world’s largest game companies – Blizzard and Activision. The news was revealed by the BBC, with the newly merged companies’ name to be Activision Blizzard.

$2 billion towards the new company will come out of Blizzard’s pockets, while Activision will chip in a modest $1 billion.

Current Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will be named CEO of Activision Blizzard, while Vivendi – which owns Blizzard – will be the group’s largest shareholder.

Jean-Bernard Levy, Vivendi chief executive, said: “This alliance is a major strategic step for Vivendi and is another illustration of our drive to extend our presence in the entertainment sector.

“By combining Vivendi’s games business with Activision, we are creating a worldwide leader in a high-growth industry.”

This is absolutely huge news; it simply can’t be understated how big a deal this is. Activision, with the Tony Hawk, Call of Duty and Guitar Hero series has been one of the biggest game publishers in the world (larger than even EA), and Blizzard’s amazing success with World of Warcraft is well known.

At this point it’s hard to say what changes we might see – if any – but I’ll be watching this story with a close eye. An investor’s meeting will be held Monday morning, so we might know more then.

Found on the good ol' BBC

By Hutch

[ez64]

sure that wasnt from the MPUK post? ^&^

[Hutch]

THERE IS NO PLAGARISM FROM ME! (the internet did it all for me)

[Bloo]

Is this a good thing... I mean, Blizzard doesn't like to rush, it's what makes their games great, but might they now be forced to rush?

[Hutch]

Activision are going the way of EA now, what with the whole guitar hero thing, rushing a game out when its not much different to the old one but has "new items" I.e different songs/levels/characters or with sports games, a more up to date team list. I think noone would dare mess Blizzard around, who knows, maybe they might influence Activision to start spending more time on production and concentrate on quality instead of profit margins, but this deal is about money as well, could it be well intentioned?