For a long time, French mega corporation Vivendi owned a controlling-stake of the merged Activision-Blizzard – much to the chagrin of Bobby Kotick and co.
If you’ll recall, Bobby Kotick and a group of investors raised enough cash to buy that controlling stake, tired as they were of Vivendi meddling in Activision’s fiscal affairs.
“We should emerge even stronger-an independent company with a best-in-class franchise portfolio and the focus and flexibility to drive long-term shareholder value and expand our leadership position as one of the world’s most important entertainment companies,” Kotick said at the time. “The transactions announced today will allow us to take advantage of attractive financing markets while still retaining more than $3 billion cash on hand to preserve financial stability.”
Vivendi still owned a large enough stake though, with nearly 42 million shares in the company. That changed last week, as Vivendi sold off its remaining share in Activision-Blizzard.
“Vivendi today announced that it unwound the hedge on its remaining 41.5 million Activision Blizzard shares (representing 5.7% of the video game publisher’s common shares) and sold its entire position to a financial institution for net proceeds of US$1.1 billion (approximately €1 billion). The unwinding of this hedge allows Vivendi to recover a cash deposit of US$0.4 billion.”
There’s no word on who exactly that financial institution is, but the deal’s netted Vivendi a fair chunk of cash.
Vivendi isn’t out of the game business yet though, and have been plugging their cash in to Ubisoft and Gameloft shares, something Ubi-bosses aren’t exactly thrilled about. This cash injection could even be used to buy more of them, and take Vivendi closer to having a controlling stake in Ubisoft.
Last Updated: January 18, 2016
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
January 18, 2016 at 17:27
Oh no, what does this mean? Will Bobby Kotick shave his head? Will this mean the end of Vivendi? The end is nigh!
lordjhb22
January 19, 2016 at 07:45
hopefully we will see more of activision than just CoD
Hammersteyn
January 19, 2016 at 07:50
Doubt it, 250 million sales. You mention COD and people eat it up like…
https://media.giphy.com/media/VN5ELbWCo7FbG/giphy.gif
The Grand Admiral Chief Prime
January 19, 2016 at 06:51
Good?
Hammersteyn
January 19, 2016 at 07:46
I’d like to think Vivendi will take one look at Uplay and go, “Dafuq is this shit? Get rid of it! Now!”
The Grand Admiral Chief Prime
January 19, 2016 at 08:20
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL