Earlier this week, reports emerged that Vivendi had entered talks with a number of major companies to sell off its majority stake in Activision Blizzard, but at the moment, those potential buyers aren't showing much interest.
According to Bloomberg, anonymous sources claim that Vivendi has spoken with companies including Microsoft, Disney, and Take-Two, though at the moment, none of these organizations are ready or willing to purchase the World of Warcraft and Call of Duty publisher.
In addition, Vivendi reportedly approached China's Tencent and Japan's Nexon, though sources claim that neither company could afford Activision Blizzard, as Vivendi is seeking a full cash sale up-front.
When asked whether the Activision Blizzard sale is really happening, Vivendi chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou only said, "It’s a possibility." Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, meanwhile, was coy about the future of his business, and told press, "It's great weather."
Be sure to keep an eye on Gamasutra as the story develops, as we'll continue to provide coverage as new details come to light.
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"Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, meanwhile, was coy about the future of his business, and told press, "It's great weather."
Great weather? For who? Majority share holders who could walk away from this with bags of cash? Yeah, I want to know what the Blizzard heads are all saying in their private office meetings. I would pay cash money to be a fly on that wall right now. I also want to know what the Blizzard underlings are all saying too. This must be kind of scary in a way. Uncertain future and all that.
anyways, i'm curious why vivendi wants to sell at all, Activision is the one publisher who is really raking in the money, why would you want to get rid of such a profitable asset?
what do they know we don't (or atleast think they know)
now why others aren't buying is probably due to the giant sum of money Vivendi wants.
or they asked the same question I just did, what is wrong with this publisher if Vivendi wants to seel something that is making that much money
Netease has over $13 billion in cash and short term investments on hand.
However Netease would be wise to keep an eye on a different prize as EA is trading at very low historic multiples. The Origin distribution platform might be of greater value than ATVI's IP if Netease has ambitions to grow outside of China. I would guess that they could attract sufficient interest from EA share holders with a $20 tender.
Call of Duty is still a super valuable brand & franchise, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth and of course they lost the core talent that was driving it.
Vivendi is trying to offload the asset at the peak of its value, but it sounds like they're too late and suitors are low-balling them.
I think you're making the mistake of thinking the vocal minority on the forums is reflective of the game's overall health. It's absolutely true that there is a subset of players that are dissatisfied, but the game itself is still performing very very well, and it's unlikely that will change in the immediate future thanks to the massive audience D3 now has.
It's not because of something wrong with Act-Bliz, but more about what's wrong with the rest of Vivendi. Keep in mind Vivendi is itself a publicly traded company. Vivendi's other media related holdings are not doing well, and its share price has taken a hit. They need money to keep their core media/telecom business out of debt and growing. So they are selling AB to make money to invest in other parts of the business that they would rather be invested in.