Vivendi sells Activision Blizzard
October 14, 2013
By Chris Forrester
Media giant Vivendi gas completed the sale of its 85 per cent stake in games company Activision Blizzard for a total cash price of $8.2 billion. It will hold onto about 12 per cent of the company (83 million shares).
The sale was first announced back in July to an investment consortium led by Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick along with other executives. Their acquisition vehicle is ASAC LP, and contains Chinese digital company Tencent, Fidelity Investments plus others.
Activision Blizzard is best known for its ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ series of console games.
The sale had been held up by minority Activision shareholders (Hayes vs Activision Blizzard) who had been suing both Activision and Vivendi. The Delaware Chancery Court dismissed that action on October 9.