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is awesome32281 Posts
SANTA MONICA, Calif. & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Vivendi (Euronext Paris: VIV) today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business -- which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s® World of Warcraft®, the world’s #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise -- with Activision, creating the world’s largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.
Activision, one of the world’s leading independent publishers of interactive entertainment, is best known for its top-selling franchises, including Guitar Hero®, Call of Duty® and the Tony Hawk series, as well as Spider-Man™, X-Men™, Shrek®, James Bond™ and TRANSFORMERS™. Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, has projected calendar 2007 revenues of $1.1 billion, operating margins of over 40% and approximately $520 million of operating profit. Blizzard owns the #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise, World of Warcraft, which currently has over 9.3 million subscribers worldwide. 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. Vivendi Games also owns popular franchises, including Crash Bandicoot™ and Spyro™. Pro forma for calendar 2007, Activision Blizzard expects to generate approximately 70% of its revenues from owned franchises. As a result of the business combination, Activision Blizzard expects to have the most diversified and broadest portfolio of interactive entertainment assets in its industry, positioning the combined company to capitalize on the continued worldwide growth in interactive entertainment.
http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/Aktie/12717405/News/14442529/ACTIVISION.html
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071202005054&newsLang=en
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN0236714920071202
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=139685
http://www.euroinvestor.co.uk/news/shownewsstory.aspx?storyid=9668052&BW=20071202005054
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What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_-
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I think Blizzarrovision would be a better name
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Blizzard isnt merging with activision, Vivendi the parent company did, blizz just stuck following vivendi.
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On December 03 2007 02:35 XCetron wrote:
Blizzard isnt merging with activision, Vivendi the parent company did, blizz just stuck following vivendi. Parent companies people. Just like how Disney has rights to ABC and ESPN I think.
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On December 03 2007 02:33 Equinox_kr wrote:
What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_-
Square didnt have much of a choice at the time, it was almost broke, it was more of a buy out than a merger tbh
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On December 03 2007 02:33 Equinox_kr wrote:
What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_-
Wtf totally unrelated? Come on, if you've got the same exact developers working in the same exact development teams, what difference does it make? It's not like the developers get worse because they have a name change at the upper levels, or that top Activision bosses will tell Blizzard to start sucking now.
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United States22883 Posts
On December 03 2007 03:03 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2007 02:33 Equinox_kr wrote:
What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_- Wtf totally unrelated? Come on, if you've got the same exact developers working in the same exact development teams, what difference does it make? It's not like the developers get worse because they have a name change at the upper levels, or that top Activision bosses will tell Blizzard to start sucking now. Yeah? And what would you all be saying if EA was the publisher that took over Blizzard?
It always start at the top.
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one more step towards the New World Order! the end is near...
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On December 03 2007 03:13 Jibba wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2007 03:03 Myrmidon wrote:On December 03 2007 02:33 Equinox_kr wrote:
What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_- Wtf totally unrelated? Come on, if you've got the same exact developers working in the same exact development teams, what difference does it make? It's not like the developers get worse because they have a name change at the upper levels, or that top Activision bosses will tell Blizzard to start sucking now. Yeah? And what would you all be saying if EA was the publisher that took over Blizzard? It always start at the top.
I dunno how you read it but to me it says Activision and Vivendi are mutually merging, rather than a take over by Activision. So I imagine it still has reign over itself for the most part
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Does this mean anything for us? By us I mean the people that buy their games and even more specifically anything going to happen to SC2 such as delays`?
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merging could be good or bad, well see after the games come out
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On December 03 2007 02:33 Equinox_kr wrote:
What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_-
lmao
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United States22883 Posts
On December 03 2007 03:21 Woyn wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2007 03:13 Jibba wrote:On December 03 2007 03:03 Myrmidon wrote:On December 03 2007 02:33 Equinox_kr wrote:
What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_- Wtf totally unrelated? Come on, if you've got the same exact developers working in the same exact development teams, what difference does it make? It's not like the developers get worse because they have a name change at the upper levels, or that top Activision bosses will tell Blizzard to start sucking now. Yeah? And what would you all be saying if EA was the publisher that took over Blizzard? It always start at the top. I dunno how you read it but to me it says Activision and Vivendi are mutually merging, rather than a take over by Activision. So I imagine it still has reign over itself for the most part Right, but Blizzard is under Vivendi and now Activision. Essentially, Blizzard has a new "half boss" and whether that's good or bad, I have no clue. I think it's fair to assume they won't operate exactly the same as they were before.
Maybe they make them take out MBS, maybe we end up with Starcraft 64 2. :x
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Excellent. I can't wait for the new version of Pitfall where you have to jump and swing over a burrowed lurker.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
On December 03 2007 02:33 Equinox_kr wrote:
What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_-
They had already become shit before then.
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If this means blizzard will start making more unique games instead of the same 3 franchises over and over this seems awesome as long as they keep taking their time and polish their games like always. Somehow I don't think there will be much of an impact though.
On December 03 2007 02:33 Equinox_kr wrote:
What the freak. Why is Blizzard merging with ACTIVISION? Look at what happened to SquareSoft; they merge with Enix to make SquareEnix and then they make FFX-2 -_-
Every SquareSoft game I've played is an rpg that's almost identical to the other ones, it's only natural people realized they started to suck and that those assholes had to come up with something decent again.
This is what I found on the blizzard.com site at press releases:
VIVENDI AND ACTIVISION TO CREATE ACTIVISION BLIZZARD – WORLD'S LARGEST, MOST PROFITABLE PURE-PLAY VIDEO GAME PUBLISHER
First of all, why does this shit always have to be in caps? Second of all, the whole MOST PROFITABLE part doesn't really seem very appealing to me. I have to say I liked it better when blizzard was smaller, blizzard has always made top quality games, this just feels like it can only get worse from here on. I just hope I'm wrong.
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Blizzard would be so much richer if they had just stayed independent the entire time
like Vivendi's gaming divisions is pretty much Blizzard + a bunch of random crappy games
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i1.tinypic.com/6jodfz5.jpg)
