Activision is riding high on the success of games such as Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk, but has lacked an offering such as World of Warcraft.
By Reuters
InformationWeek
April 17, 2008 08:58 AM
BRUSSELS, April 16 -- French telecom and media group Vivendi won permission from the European Commission on Wednesday to merge its video game unit with Activision in a $9.85 billion deal.
The complex deal will give Vivendi a 52% stake in a new industry giant called Activision Blizzard with annual revenue of $3.8 billion, rivaling that of Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS), the world's biggest independent game publisher.
The commission said for "all categories of game software, the combined firm would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft."
Activision is riding high on the success of games such as Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk, but has lacked an offering in the online role-playing area, dominated by World of Warcraft from Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment. (Reporting by David Lawsky and Huw Jones; Editing by Dale Hudson)
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SOURCE:
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