Activision Blizzard’s current “owner” is Vivendi who pretty much owns the majority stock in the company. However as of today, Vivendi will be selling off another $850 million worth of stock in the company, leaving them with a remainder of 6% stake in the company. Unfortunately Vivendi will not be able to sell off that remainder until 2015, so for now Vivendi still has a stake in Activision Blizzard, albeit a small one.
Back in 2013, both Vivendi and Activision Blizzard agree to split. This came after Activision Blizzard was part of Vivendi’s group for a good five years. Now we had heard that Vivendi had initially planned on selling off Activision Blizzard but we guess they could not find any buyers, which led to Activision Blizzard agreeing to buy itself back for a whopping $8.17 billion.
This is a two-part share acquisition, with the first part including the buyback of 429 million shares worth $5.83 billion. The next part will be bought back via an investor group that is headed by Activision Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick, and co-chairman Brian Kelly, ASAC II, where they will buy back 172 million Activision Blizzard shares for $2.34 billion.
What this means for Activision Blizzard is that they will now be an independently owned company, which will hopefully also mean that the developers will be able to embark on more risky projects, as opposed to playing it safe. However we guess only time will tell as to what will be the result of this, so check back with us at a later date for the details!
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