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Congrats to them.
I doubt this will impact Blizzard's ability to put out great titles. The only thing I'd worry about is if they change their employee bonus structure from a cash system to a share option structure. I've never been at a company where the average employee is both so isolated from and so oblivious to financial matters like revenue, cash flow, and profits. It's just not part of their collective conscious in the slightest. I'd wager the majority don't have even a rudimentary understanding of corporate finances. That's probably a huge part of why they've been able games as good as they have.
But it's also reason they're probably more susceptible than most to alien, new pressures where a free market judges your value every minute. It doesn't take long before you start noticing correlations between announcements and changes in the company's, and your own valuation with share options. It's very hard not to let that creep into your decision making. I'm sure their management will make every effort to prevent that from happening, but time will tell.
Good luck to all the teams there 
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hopefully blizzard has enough influence to resist the new outside pressures that will eventually bear down upon them
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Can someone who IS knowledgeable about this topic, give me a pro's/cons about this merger?
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the fact they said this won't effect their day-to-day operation is a flat out lie. Now the company will be more public than ever and their are new shareholders who have a stake in what they do. In fact look what happened to the original team (Bill R. and co.) and Blizzard North once Vivendi stepped in. There was a dispute where Bill left and then Vivendi shut down the Blizzard North office. Of course they'll say what you want to hear. Bleh! I guess we just have to wait and see what happens.
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I think it's only about time til blizzard completely sucks at developing, they havn't made a good game since diablo 2 after all.
wc3 + wow arn't good 
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8751 Posts
On December 03 2007 10:01 MarklarMarklar wrote:wc3 + wow arn't good
To think there have been hundreds of debates on the quality of WC3 and WoW and all this time MarklarMarklar had the answer. Thank you for finally informing us. We'll be sure to pass it on to the rest of the world.
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Doesnt this just mean activision is now a subsidery of viveldi?
The only common thing between blizzard and activision is that the have the same owner and thats it.
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On December 03 2007 10:20 NonY[rC] wrote:To think there have been hundreds of debates on the quality of WC3 and WoW and all this time MarklarMarklar had the answer. Thank you for finally informing us. We'll be sure to pass it on to the rest of the world.
no problem i'm signing autographs in my blog
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Physician
United States4146 Posts
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
doesn't really say a lot. like most of these reports. corporate restructuring may not bring about any substantive changes to the relevant operations that produce games and stuff.
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On December 03 2007 06:35 lololol wrote:WHAT THE HELL??? It should be BLIZZARD activision, not activision BLIZZARD! It's a conspiracy, I tell you! Show nested quote +On December 03 2007 05:43 GrandInquisitor wrote:Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Warcraft®, StarCraft® and Diablo® games account for four of the top-five best-selling PC game titles of all time. Wow. The funny thing is that the top game is "the sims" 
Well, the Sims appeals to both girls and guys, I know my ex used to play Sims a lot -_-
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On blizzard website they have a Q & A basically saying nothing will change. Ok so what exactly WILL change? Less funding allocated to blizzard or what?
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On December 03 2007 06:09 SoleSteeler wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2007 06:03 cz wrote:
I can see them not tampering with development, but what happens when the game is half a year overdue (like all Blizzard games seem to be). I hope they don't push for a release before Blizzard is ready, just to get some faster profit. Did you not read the FAQ above?
And you are absolutely certain that everything in that press release is 100% accurate and will remain accurate into the next few years? They are owned by Activision now, and whatever Activision decides is what Blizzard must do. Two years down the line and some game is slow to be released, do you really think they are going to care what they said pre-merger, to their subordinates?
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On December 03 2007 12:34 Equinox_kr wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2007 06:35 lololol wrote:WHAT THE HELL??? It should be BLIZZARD activision, not activision BLIZZARD! It's a conspiracy, I tell you! On December 03 2007 05:43 GrandInquisitor wrote:Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Warcraft®, StarCraft® and Diablo® games account for four of the top-five best-selling PC game titles of all time. Wow. The funny thing is that the top game is "the sims" Well, the Sims appeals to both girls and guys, I know my ex used to play Sims a lot -_-
Sims is definitely a girl's game.
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On December 03 2007 10:01 Showtime! wrote:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the fact they said this won't effect their day-to-day operation is a flat out lie. Now the company will be more public than ever and their are new shareholders who have a stake in what they do. In fact look what happened to the original team (Bill R. and co.) and Blizzard North once Vivendi stepped in. There was a dispute where Bill left and then Vivendi shut down the Blizzard North office. Of course they'll say what you want to hear. Bleh! I guess we just have to wait and see what happens.
So you admit you know nothing about why Blizzard North left?
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From what I understand Vivendi is basicly buying Activision and combining it with their game division to create a company that can rival EA. After the merge Vivendi will become the parent company of ActivisionBlizzard with 52% ownership and in 2008 they plan to boost that stake up to 68%.
Their combined portfolio of money making franchises will include:
Guitar Hero
Call of Duty
Tony Hawk
Doom
Quake
World of Warcraft
Personally, I think this is terrible idea because the video gaming industry is extremely competitive and profits are alway slim. By merging into a giant public corporation there will be a lot of outsiders, investment banks and fund managers getting involved in the company and demanding higher profits, more dividends, etc... So AcitivisionBlizzard will be forced to release more games, cut cost (read - layoffs, more no pay overtime...) etc. Even though the Blizzard FAQ claims that NOTHING will change but if nothing will change why would they merge in the first place? The least that will change will be merging of the management and financial structure, I think this is a terrible move but there is nothing Blizzard, as a tiny division of a Vivendi - the largest multimedia corporation in Europe, can do about this.
"Vivendi Games will convert its equity into Activision shares valued at $8.1 billion, and Vivendi will buy an additional $1.7 billion of stock, for a total of $9.8 billion, giving Vivendi a 52 percent stake in a new company to be called Activision Blizzard. On that basis, Activision and Vivendi valued the combined company at $18.9 billion."
"After the transaction closes, expected in the first half of 2008, Activision Blizzard will launch a $4 billion all-cash tender offer to purchase up to 146.5 million Activision Blizzard common shares at $27.50 each. Vivendi also has agreed to acquire an additional $700 million of newly issued Activision shares, giving Vivendi about a 68 percent stake in Activision Blizzard if the tender offer is fully subscribed."
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071202/vivendi_activision.html
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Canada5458 Posts
On December 03 2007 15:14 cz wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2007 06:09 SoleSteeler wrote:On December 03 2007 06:03 cz wrote:
I can see them not tampering with development, but what happens when the game is half a year overdue (like all Blizzard games seem to be). I hope they don't push for a release before Blizzard is ready, just to get some faster profit. Did you not read the FAQ above? And you are absolutely certain that everything in that press release is 100% accurate and will remain accurate into the next few years? They are owned by Activision now, and whatever Activision decides is what Blizzard must do. Two years down the line and some game is slow to be released, do you really think they are going to care what they said pre-merger, to their subordinates?
Vivendi owns Blizzard, and has for several years. Vivendi also owns this Activision Blizzard merge. Why would they start to force Blizzard to release unfinished games now?
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
PERHAPS THEY WILL STOP MAKING SC2 AND OUR GAME WILL BE SAVED?
-or-
They will shove a fucking nail gun up the developers asses of SC2 (currently) and tell them to stop smoking crack while drawing pictures of lazers and crickets and asking us to acknowledge them as SC units and concepts.
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Haha, if you are profit minded buy Activision stock first thing tomorrow morning (EST). It's opening price will be $22.15 and "after the transaction closes, expected in the first half of 2008, Activision Blizzard will launch a $4 billion all-cash tender offer to purchase up to 146.5 million Activision Blizzard common shares at $27.50 each. So if videndi keep their word doing this will give you a nice 20% profit for your investments, which is not bad for a 7 month period.
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IF they try to compete with EA , and involve blizzard in doing that , we're doomed.
i don't wanna see a game released each week like EA does , and then abandon them.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/d/dreddss.jpg)
