Vivendi trying to get rid of Activision shares

[Osmeric]

fine, believe whatever crap you want to believe. i'll sit here, safe in the knowledge(not theory) that if/when Vivendi sells it's shares of Activision that Blizzard is going nowhere.

Look, you don't realize it, but your notion of how these businesses are arranged is totally wrong. You're foolishly mistaken, and all the arrogant bravado you parade doesn't change that fact.

Go look at the online resources that would tell you you're full of it. For example, go look at the quarterly and annual earnings statements from ATVI, the ones they are required by federal law to provide (and that are accurate under penalty of criminal sanction). What do those statements show? Earnings from all of Blizzard accrue to ATVI. Depreciation of Blizzard assets goes into ATVI's balance sheet. None of that would be happening if Blizzard wasn't a component of ATVI that directly connected to the outstanding shares in ATVI.

When you buy a share in ATVI, you buy a share in all components of ATVI including Blizzard. That's why Blizzard's financial data is in these reports.

[Deleted]

Osmeric is in the right here. This is how the merger went:

Before the merger there were:
1) Vivendi S.A
2) Vivendi games, a 100% owned subsidiary of 1), with divisions such as Blizzard entertainment , Sierra entertainment etc.
3) Activision

Then, Activision was acquired by Vivendi SA and merged with Vivendi Games that resulted in:
1) Vivendi S.A
2) Activision Blizzard, currently a ~60% owned subsidiary of 1), with divisions Blizzard Entertainment and Activision

Division is a pretty loose term, but in Activision Blizzard's case it means that it is a holding company that owns 100% of both divisions, which essentially mean that they form a single company that is structured in the way that divisions are subsidiaries. If the "mother" company changes owners, so does the subsidiaries, so if Vivendi sells it's stake in Activision-Blizzard, both Activision and Blizzard goes to the new owner.

[Deleted]

fine, believe whatever crap you want to believe. i'll sit here, safe in the knowledge(not theory) that if/when Vivendi sells it's shares of Activision that Blizzard is going nowhere.

logic can't pierce that skull of yours, but i suppose that's your right.

i maintain the right to snicker mockingly when things fall out as i said.

Activision Blizzard is one company mate. If vivendi sells, it sells everything. (61%)

The only exception would be if Blizzard decided to split from Activision but that is very unlikely.

[Osmeric]

Activision Blizzard is one company mate. If vivendi sells, it sells everything. (61%)

The only exception would be if Blizzard decided to split from Activision but that is very unlikely.

And "Blizzard" wouldn't decide that, the board of Activision-Blizzard would.

[Deleted]

And "Blizzard" wouldn't decide that, the board of Activision-Blizzard would.

This is true. However, it would likely only happen after heavy internal pressure from the Blizzard side of the company.

Personally I hope they split, as unlikely as it is. Activision can go on making their shitty games and have a better looking bottom line without Blizzard. And Blizzard can make the games we love them for making again. Would be nice. But from recent developments at Blizzard, I'm starting to wonder if their even is an internal distinction between Blizzard and Activision.

Mists of Pandamanland sounds like something Kotick and his lackeys thought up.

[Deleted]

So... they are selling Activision-Blizzard, but the buyer only gets Activision?

[Osmeric]

So... they are selling Activision-Blizzard, but the buyer only gets Activision?

Only on Bizarro Earth. On real Earth, Blizzard is part of Activision-Blizzard.

[Duskmourne]

It's too bad Richard Garriott isn't as rich as his wacky lifestyle would lead you to believe. I would love for him to have a major stake in the future of Blizzard. He appreciates games for what they are and doesn't necessarily care about world domination and dividends.

Quick! Get Richard Garriott to start a Kickstarter! He can start by replacing Varian with Lord British and give mages the Fire Field! In Flam Grav!!!

[Deficineiron]

fine, believe whatever crap you want to believe. i'll sit here, safe in the knowledge(not theory) that if/when Vivendi sells it's shares of Activision that Blizzard is going nowhere.

logic can't pierce that skull of yours, but i suppose that's your right.

i maintain the right to snicker mockingly when things fall out as i said.

I swear people do this on purpose just to try to get the goal of people like me osmeric and others. It just isn't possible for someone to be this defensive and antagonistic about being utterly wrong.

[Deleted]

Only on Bizarro Earth. On real Earth, Blizzard is part of Activision-Blizzard.

Good, what I thought too, alot of people saying otherwise which makes it all very confusing for someone without the immediate know-how.

[Black Rider]

Can Activision-Blizzard buy out themselves? Is it a possbility? (finanacial wise)

[Osmeric]

Can Activision-Blizzard buy out themselves? Is it a possbility? (finanacial wise)

No. It's possible for executives in a company to get together with financiers and borrow money to buy out the company (this is called "going private"). I doubt they would do that at ATVI, but who knows.

[tielknight]

Will never happen. Government wouldn't allow it.

Give them enough money and they will let anything happen.

Either they think COD & such has reached it's peak or they forsee something going apeshit in the market and are pulling out before that happens.

[rhorle]

fine, believe whatever crap you want to believe. i'll sit here, safe in the knowledge(not theory) that if/when Vivendi sells it's shares of Activision that Blizzard is going nowhere.

Vivendi doesn't own any shares in Activision. Activision isn't a publicly traded company, just as Blizzard isn't a publicly traded company. Activision Blizzard is the publicly traded company and Vivendi SA only owns shares in Activision Blizzard. The only way that Vivendi SA would retain ownership of Blizzard is if they spin Blizzard off before selling their 61% stake. Or Vivendi SA can pay Activision Blizzard a sum of money to buy Blizzard Entertainment from Activision Blizzard

Vivendi SA owns Activision Blizzard which operates under their segments: Activision Publishing Inc, Blizzard Entertainment Inc, and Activision Blizzard Distribution.
Source: Page 9 of the Quarterly SEC filing http://investor.activision.com/secfi...04659-12-35264

Those are the three subsidiaries of Activision Blizzard. The only ones that own or control those subsidiaries is Activision Blizzard. Vivendi SA only has a say over the subsidiaries because they own 61% of the holding company. Whoever owns a share in Activision Blizzard also owns a share in those three companies. If you sell a share your control of those three companies goes down by a share.

0 shares means 0 control of Activision Blizzard and all of its subsidiaries.

[Deficineiron]

No. It's possible for executives in a company to get together with financiers and borrow money to buy out the company (this is called "going private"). I doubt they would do that at ATVI, but who knows.

finding a way to retire the vivendi shares would be a huge issue for the value of remaining shares, depending on what debt instruments were used to fund it. Heck, they are doing billion-dollar buybacks every couple of years anyway, iirc, what is another 5 billion or so among acquaintances?

More seriously, I have no idea if atvi mgmt would find the idea either attractive or viable. If the alternative is having a new majority owner who they don't like the idea of working with but wants to keep them on, it would be interesting. The nightmare would be a new majority owner pushes out the current mgmt team over the first couple of years. I have read insinuations that the voting stock breakdown isn't enough to let the vivendi stake do this, though, and kotick is next largest shareholder.

[Fuger]

Looking at companies that are strong enough to buy all those shares in bulk leaves it down to a slim few.

I would say most of the shares are going to be sold to people who already own a good amount. I am wondering who has 30% or so of the remaining stock because they could take the reins.

[Deleted]

This is a topical bump because the news of the OP refer to this Friday.

Any news about the event?

[Karizee]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/6704...-or-asset-sale

"Activision Blizzard description - World's biggest video game company, and in my opinion has the best overall portfolio of games in the entire industry. Call of Duty, Skylanders, Diablo, Starcraft, World of Warcraft, among others are included in the portfolio. This is the asset that I think would make the most sense to sell or spin off.

Call of Duty produces over $1 billion of revenue by itself with every game produced, which comes out once a year usually in November.

However, most of these franchises have either just come out with games or are past their prime in my opinion. World of Warcraft, while still a cash cow, is gushing subscription members every month, and Blizzard has already started to move resources into the next MMORPG, which has no release date. Diablo III just came out so I don't expect another game in that series for a while. Call of Duty, while still producing huge revenue and profits, is at its peak in my opinion and can only go down from here. The development studio that makes the Call of Duty series has also been fighting with and losing a lot of team members over the last several years, which will hurt quality in the future.

I also see the entire console video game industry in a decline as well. You can only keep asking people to pay more for less for so long before they decide to stop buying games and consoles, especially with cheaper games coming out either free to play or for under $10 on tablets and phones."

[rhorle]

If Diablo 3 does at least as well as diablo 2 then they don't have to release a new one anytime soon in order to be very profitable. As Diablo 2 was still a best seller even after all these years. In other words sounds like an analyst that doesn't really know what they are talking about and is just looking at current games and hating on popular and predictable games.

Not to mention the article over looks Heart of the Swarm and the various side projects of that Blizzard has like Blizzard All Stars game/mode.

[Osmeric]

This is a topical bump because the news of the OP refer to this Friday.

Any news about the event?

I didn't see anything in the news about it.