A mind is a terrible thing to waste, which is exactly why I am doing my damn best to make sure mine is completely pickled before it is too late.
That said I will happily admit to having completely forgotten that Vivendi had anything at all to do with Activision Blizzard, let alone that fact that they were the majority shareholders with around a 61% stake in the company.
It is rumoured today however that this may not be the case for very much longer. It seems Vivendi are on the lookout for a buyer for to take that stake of their hand.
Now naturally as gamers we look to the bad recent history of what Activision Blizzard have been outputting. Both sides are still making profit but neither are doing it in the same hand over fist way they once did.
However having looked into it a bit, that may be merely a side though. There are deeper troubles at Vivendi, they have lost a fair chunk of money to lawsuits, senior members of the board leaving over disagreement about the future direction of the company.
On my very simple glance over the background, to me it looks like Vivendi are in consolidating mode. They are considering getting back to their roots in TV and music, while leaving the games to people who know what they are doing with it.
I will be going off and doing more research on this as I’m thinking it may be an interesting one to follow.
As for what will happen to Activision Blizzard, well that all remains to be seen. If I were to guess they will be sold off as a unit for a few billion.
Here’s just praying it’s not EA that try to swoop in, an EA owned Activision – I think I might have nightmares tonight.
