Seems as though Activision has its sights on decimating Blizzard with spending cuts, cheap games and fast returns for a quick buck.
So far the list looks something like this and correct me if I’m wrong.
Diablo 3 expansion canned by Activision despite 30 million copies being sold.
Diablo 4 in works for 2 years (I believe) rumored to be a dark souls-esque like sequel, Activision cans the project in 2016 and tells Blizzard to reimagine the entire game.
Blizzard releases Diablo mobile, which is looking like a cash grab at the moment.
Because of Overwatch Activision made in a billion dollars in revenue that year and their stock enjoyed a nice bump up. Now it seems like Activision wants these results every quarter (3 months). Not realizing it took Blizzard about 10 years, the scrapping of one of their biggest games ever imagined (Titan) and finally rising out of the ashes of Titan like an angry phoenix was Overwatch. Like we’re ever going to see something like this again. Since about 2010 these major gaming publishers like EA and Activision have slowly been taken over by number crunchers who never played a game in their miserable lives.
They look at numbers, see what’s selling and tell the developers to copy it. Telling Blizzard to “do that Overwatch thing again where you made us a billion dollars” means they have to wait 8-10 years for a gem like that to be developed and I don’t think we’ll ever see that again. At least not from Blizzard, as long as they’re owned by Activision. Asking myself why the hell I’m even writing this and I think it’s a sort of goodbye to my favorite gaming company, it was a good ride and I don’t regret any of it. I’ll ride it out until Activision burns you guys out and gobbles up the next gaming company.
I dont own any shares anymore I sold my mutual funds off several years back but I would be nice for blizz to break away and become an independent again. Looks like the money is gona be in “green” stocks and I dont mean green cuz environmental friendly.
It would require tens of billions of dollars in financing that would have to be borrowed from the banks or paid for in another company’s stock.
But if ATVI stock price keeps getting crushed as it has been during the past couple of months, maybe eventually it could get to the point where it might. Goes without saying that would be a nightmare scenario for those holding ATVI.
Nothing Blizzard did, Activision merged with Vivendi in 2008, Blizzard didn’t really have a say in the merger. In 2013 Activision bought 500 million shares of Vivendi and taking majority ownership of Vivendi and all of its assets, which included Blizzard.
Right, so it’s not Blizzard’s fault that they turned to crap, it’s Vivendi’s fault, and it’s not their first big financial mistake. Look up their 60 some million dollar telecom catastrophe…
I wasn’t saying Blizzard is perfect but it’s one of my favorites. I thought your question was aimed at whose fault it was that Activision owns Blizzard. I didn’t see your strawman hunter trap.
First off it was Activision Blizzard that did the buyback , not Activision Publishing (the arm of ATVI that does the Activision Games)
Secondly they brought back their shares of Activision Blizzard not Vivendi. Activision Blizzard does not own Vivendi. Nor does Vivendi currently own any ATVI shares.
Lastly those shares they brought back have since been sold back to the public. Investment firms have the largest shares of ATVI but are not currently majority shareholders.
Can’t believe how much wrong information was in this thread, thanks for clearing up a lot of it.
I would also like to add that Vivendi forced Blizzard and Activision to merge into a single company. Therefore making it impossible for Blizzard to “buy back” their shares as they are not owned by Activision.
Ah the majority shareholder question rears it’s head again.
The real issue is the fact the Market Cap is nowhere near what would be needed to have a controlling share of ATVI. Market cap is equal to the share price X the number of outstanding shares.
Market Cap is currently $35.56 billion while my estimate for a controlling share of ATVI is $57 billion (aka %51 of all shares). Meaning that at some stage you would need to convince those who have the shares you need to sell back to.
The Cliff Notes version is that Activision merged with Vivendi’s video game division to form ActiBlizz. In exchange, Vivendi got slightly more than 50% of ActiBlizz shares and controlling interest in ActiBlizz. Then for corporate reasons, Vivendi sold off its ActiBlizz shares for cash over the years.
So even if it might be a stretch, Blizzard Entertainment lost its ‘protector’ when Vivendi dumped its shares. In this timeline, Activision’s original rulers rule.
Just guessing but Vivendi made more than 1,000% return on its Blizzard Entertainment investment. Emphasis on “more than.” Better to be lucky than good, eh?
In 2000 Activision created their own holding company “Activision Inc” under which was Activision Publishing (the arm that does the games). Activision is defined in the merger documents as “Activision Inc” (the holding company).
On July 25th 2013 Activision Blizzard announced they were buying back 429 million and million ASAC II LP, an investment vehicle led by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and Co-Chairman Brian Kelly, to which they have personally committed $100 million combined, separately will purchase approximately 172 million shares.
Most notably that investment group has since sold off a majority of it’s shares.
I was always confused by something. Why did blizzard team up with activision in first place? I was under the impression they were doing great by themselves.