The eventuality of seeing the Vivendi group selling its stakes in Activision Blizzard does not date from today. In quite a debt, the French group has been losing its dead weights for a long time now to refocus its slate business, and we must admit that the Call of Duty/World of Warcraft combo offers a nice package of cash. After months and months of rumors, the freedom is now of actuality: Vivendi, owning 61% of Activision Blizzard has sold 49% of its shares to the group.
Activision effectively paid out  $5.83 billion out of its own pockets to acquire 428 million of shares, with the remaining ones going to an investor group led by none other than Bobby Kotick himself, the current CEO of Activision Blizzard, offering $2.34 billion to buy 172 million of shares. An operation that consisted of a total of $8.2 billion. It is not insignificant to note that in the group of investors was Tencent, the Chinese online game giant known for games like Dungeon & Fighter and Xunxian. This sale made of Activision Blizzard an entirely independent company, fully controlled by Bobby Kotick.
However, while the two actualities have not been officially linked, if Activision Blizzard was emancipated from Vivendi, one of the flagship games of the group, World of Warcraft, is constantly losing subscribers. In fact, 600,000 people ended their subscription during the past three months, bringing down the current number of subscribers to 7.7 million players. This is quite a blow to the company, especially considering that this period isn't exactly favourable for the MMO world. A passage to free-to-play may be the only option to keep the game active.
Activision effectively paid out  $5.83 billion out of its own pockets to acquire 428 million of shares, with the remaining ones going to an investor group led by none other than Bobby Kotick himself, the current CEO of Activision Blizzard, offering $2.34 billion to buy 172 million of shares. An operation that consisted of a total of $8.2 billion. It is not insignificant to note that in the group of investors was Tencent, the Chinese online game giant known for games like Dungeon & Fighter and Xunxian. This sale made of Activision Blizzard an entirely independent company, fully controlled by Bobby Kotick.
However, while the two actualities have not been officially linked, if Activision Blizzard was emancipated from Vivendi, one of the flagship games of the group, World of Warcraft, is constantly losing subscribers. In fact, 600,000 people ended their subscription during the past three months, bringing down the current number of subscribers to 7.7 million players. This is quite a blow to the company, especially considering that this period isn't exactly favourable for the MMO world. A passage to free-to-play may be the only option to keep the game active.
