Activision to be sold?

antijoke

antijoke

antijoke

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Vivendi may decide to sell all or part of their 61% stake in mega-publisher Activision during an upcoming meeting of senior executives on June 22, according to inside sources with investing analysis website Bloomberg News (a reputable site not known for spreading hearsay).

Bloomberg reports that the Paris-based parent of Activision is looking for ways to raise their stock price, and selling off the powerhouse publisher of Call of Duty, Skylanders, and other major franchises could fetch a pretty penny. Bloomberg lists Activision's market value at $13 billion. For reference, Vivendi purchased Activision for $4 billion in 2007.

Our take? It may seem crazy for Vivendi to part with the most profitable publisher on the planet, but really it could be the ultimate "sell high" move. Call of Duty appears to have peaked (though it is, of course, still massively successful), Skylanders is huge right now, and the arrival of the next generation of consoles in the coming 1-2 years could prove to be a turbulent, unpredictable time, speaking purely from a publisher's dollars-and-cents perspective. This may, in fact, be the perfect time to sell if Vivendi isn't interested in Activision as a long-term business proposition. If it happens, the next question would naturally be, "Who could afford them?" Not many players in the video game space have 10-figure bank accounts...

We'll have more on this story as it develops and as June 22 nears.
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Would seem like a crazy move to many but the above does show it may be a shrewd move.

EA to step in?
 
anticonscience said:
Would seem like a crazy move to many but the above does show it may be a shrewd move.

EA to step in?
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The above is just trying to rationalise it. COD has not 'peaked', far from it, all my mates are actually looking forward to blops2 even though the general consensus is it won't be as good as mw3, but they see it as something new to tide them over to mw4. The new consoles won't be a turbulant time, they'll still produce the same games for all the consoles and people will still lap it up. If COD isn't still here in 10 years time (or at least a game very similar produced by the same people) then I'll eat my hat.
 
i can see it being quite likely, theyve had a good run with activision and i think things are set to take a downward turn from here on out with some of their franchises becoming a little stale, consumers may not be buying their games as much anymore, thats just me thinking outloud though
 
Semiskimmed said:
i can see it being quite likely, theyve had a good run with activision and i think things are set to take a downward turn from here on out with some of their franchises becoming a little stale, consumers may not be buying their games as much anymore, thats just me thinking outloud though
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I agree that their games are rubbish with the exception of the Blizzard bunch, but they all keep selling more than the last. Even the horribly received and incredibly generic looking Black Ops II is guaranteed to bring in a solid cash flow.

I'm pretty sure Vivendi is looking to sell because they need the money short-term.
 
I certainly don't see the bottom about to drop out of the games industry and Activision's published titles will continue to sell well.

If this is being considered, then the Vivendi Directors must Have their reasons.
What was the source of this article?
 
I would suspect it will be a deal at the corporate level that won't affect Activisions game output at all.
 
Doz007 said:
I can't see this happening but maybe Zenimax have the finances to snap up Activision?
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Last time I saw anything about their finances Zenimax would struggle to put up 1bn USD let alone 10-15 - their current buying power is more in the region of 300m.
 
desires said:
The above is just trying to rationalise it. COD has not 'peaked', far from it, all my mates are actually looking forward to blops2 even though the general consensus is it won't be as good as mw3, but they see it as something new to tide them over to mw4. The new consoles won't be a turbulant time, they'll still produce the same games for all the consoles and people will still lap it up. If COD isn't still here in 10 years time (or at least a game very similar produced by the same people) then I'll eat my hat.
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The modern warfare storyline is done.. Would be a major farce of they bought out another
 
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