A deal has been apparently in the works for months, and according to Reuters today it has gone through. Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer for Activision Blizzard, has successfully moved shares back into his control both from within Activision itself, and from an investor group which he leads. The other players in the consortium itself include his Co-chairman Brian Kelly and chinese publisher Tencent, as well as several financial investment firms. The total cost for the 49% of the company, or approximately 600 million shares? 8.2 billion dollars.
While Vivendi is keeping 12% of it’s original 61% shareholdings, Kotick’s group is kicking in 2.34 billion for 172 million shares and the lions share of 429 million shares going to Activision proper. According to a post this morning over at Joystiq, Kotick stated in a conference call this morning that Tencent is simply a passive investor with no say on the board. They have apparently pitched in due to their enthusiasm over the Call Of Duty partnership they have with Activision in China. Furthermore, the investment group has no rights to nominate board members, meaning that Activision proper has wrested controlling interests in their own company.
Congratulations! Though his outspoken nature and sometimes unpopular statements have rubbed the gaming community the wrong way, Bobby Kotick has been working for years to bring Activision Blizzard to stand on its own and it looks like he’s headed in the right direction. Let’s just hope that they can diversify their game portfolio to include risks that aren’t kiboshed by nervous investors – the growing indie game scene highlights the interests of gamers – that is, we don’t need another shooter.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, at a young age I was forced to decide whether the harsh northern winters were going to claim my fingers, or to turn to the safer pursuits of indoor activities. Little did I know that a little game called Ninja Gaiden would bring my digits more pain than frostbite ever could. Starting with Vectrex and C64 games and moving forward through the era of electronic entertainment, I sampled as much as I could in the different platforms, and began my interest in PC gaming from wrestling with DOS memory management.
While console games were a part of my earliest gaming memories and I certainly had played on most platforms including 3D0, all things Nintendo, PS1 and the like, truly the PC was my domain until the Xbox. As an old PC gamer, I ever chased the cutting edge technology. Eye of the beholder with CGA 4 colors was my first step down the the path of blowing thousands of dollars on PC upgrades over two decades. Ultima 7, with the Guardian talking to me through my monitor, still haunts my dreams and keeps me ever hoping for a decent Ultima 8 and 9. From the 3DFX SLI VooDoo2s and Aureal to today's GPU driven DirectX games, the new and shiny pictures seem to keep me going. My PC gaming has slowed down with the market shift though, and although I have choice games that will ever be on PC, I have found myself in console gaming with a bit of portable gaming in my life.
Back around the turn of the millenium (and long before fatherhood), I had fired off an email offering to help Ron with a little-known site called ConsoleGold. Little did I know it would be be a part of my life to this day. While I've seen my fair share of shovelware (thanks Ron!), I manage to try and find the fun in most games. Leaning towards sandbox and action titles, I've grown to love games for their potential to reach art. Console agnostic and excited for the progress of tomorrow, I fancy the latest and greatest, but still enjoy the good old classics ... as long as they've been revamped from their 8bit graphic roots.
See below for our list of partners and affiliates:
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
