BREAKING: Vivendi may siphon funds from Activision-Blizzard. $400 Million in debt

[spondy]

Here is the article on Gamebreaker.tv

I for one, am extremely outraged by Vivendi's lack of managing their money correctly and forcing their most successful company they have shares in to siphon money to them unless a deal is reached.

Vivendi's terrible mis-management and irresponsibility, forced them to try to sell the 61% hold in Activision-Blizzard's shares. But failing to do so has forced them into a cash grab. They are considering siphoning funds form Activision-Blizzard to cover their loss which I feel is very unfair and a completely stab in the back to their most successful investment.

This all could happen tomorrow, Teusday the 9th and if it does, Activision-Blizzard, even with all the success between CoD and WoW, it will put the in a $400 MILLION DEBT. That is completely ridiculous. If you think this will hugely affect the future of Activision-Blizzard and hurt them immensely, please leave your opinion below.


EDIT: I see a lot of replies saying its Blizzards fault cause they aren't making enough money with WoW and other things. This has really nothing to do with it. About a year ago or more, I forget the exact time, Vivendi had management and financial issue by its CEO, which they ousted. The solution to pull them out of almost bankruptcy was to sell their most valuable property which they had a 61% stake in. And you have to understand, Acti-Blizz has an agreement with Vivendi about the siphoning of funds and that agreement is set to end tomorrow. Now with no buyers for Activision-Blizzard, they have decided to act on this deadline to pull themselves out of financial crisis.

EDIT 2: And this isn't about if Blizzard is Activision's bitch, it has certaintly nothing to do with the relationship between Actvision and Blizzard. It is about how Activision-Blizzard's relationship with Vivendi is. Obviously, Vivendi is the parent company and has authority over Activision-Blizzard. I have done some research in the past 30 or so minutes and there are some regulations on siphoning money. I saw a reply saying shareholders have rights and that is completely true and this cannot happen legally without a deal being made.

EDIT 3: LETS TAKE A LOOK AT ONE VERY IMPORTANT FACT. I saw post saying they have a HUGE cash reserve and that is fantastic BUT, this would still leave them in DEBT. They are not paying $400 million, they will be in DEBT 400 million. Accroding to Reuters, they have $4.6 Billion in cash reserves. So they would LOSE all $4.6 Billion plus another $400 Million in DEBT! That is so much money. They aren' paying $400 million, they will be in $400 Million, which would be added on to their TOTAL cash reserves.

I wanted to clear that up so people don't mistake how much money that could actually be siphoned.


MOD EDIT:
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/08/ac...the-publisher/
More up to date info

[jsz]

Yeah because anything we do will change what happens.

[SL1200]

I guess we know one of the reasons wow needs a cash shop now...

Can you link the article please?

[Darsithis]

http://www.gamebreaker.tv/game-indus...sion-blizzard/

I don't know what kind of effect on World of Warcraft such a move would have.

[orioxez]

I doubt anyone here knows what this means.

[Seezer]

They wouldn't "siphon money" from Activision Blizzard. They would be selling them their shares.

[Worgoblin]

so then, RIP WoW?

[Espe]

They wouldn't "siphon money" from Activision Blizzard. They would be selling them their shares.

I am hoping this is the case.

[spondy]

They have already tried to sell of there 61% stake but there are no buyers. So they have resorted to siphoning their funds because they absolutely can but it is not the right decision.

[Darsithis]

They wouldn't "siphon money" from Activision Blizzard. They would be selling them their shares.

According to the article (the poorly-spelled article) they can force Blizzard to cover the purchase of the 61% stock in shares, leaving Blizzard with the shares and out the money.

[Wildmoon]

I don't know a damn thing about business but this looks bad so FUCK YOU! Vivendi.

[Woobels]

This is worrying imo, more so then sub losses etc.

[SL1200]

So activision blizzard will become it's own company now? Is that where this is heading? That might be a good thing in the long run.

This could be what really killed Titan.

[achromatickang]

I wonder if this would actually affect the quality of Blizzard games? When I see much smaller companies like Trion seemingly do more than Blizzard with significantly less funds it makes me wonder if trimming some of the fat would be a good thing. Currently Blizzard feels really lazy in comparison, and if cutting a majority of their staff required them to take a no non-sense / halfass attempts at development, I personally would welcome it.

[Shampro]

Vivendi - ''You 2 provide the 2 most successful games in this generation, NOT enough'' Fucking Vivendi lol.

Its seems like in the end it may in in a separation, if the debt is paid that is, because no one else can apperantly buy the share. If im understanding it correctly.

[Pull My Finger]

I think you're getting all worked up and personally offended over stuff you don't really have a grasp of.

[Wildmoon]

I wonder if this would actually affect the quality of Blizzard games? When I see much smaller companies like Trion seemingly do more than Blizzard with significantly less funds it makes me wonder if trimming some of the fat would be a good thing. Currently Blizzard feels really lazy in comparison, and if cutting a majority of their staff required them to take a no non-sense / halfass attempts at development, I personally would welcome it.

Blizzard has been giving a lot more content for WoW than Trion in both quality and quantity lately.

[Alvito]

so then, RIP WoW?

Not at all. This could easily have zero effect on Blizzard. There are positive things to look at here they will be breaking away from a parent company that some how got 400 million in the red. Vivendi can't just take the money from them since that would be stealing from the other 39% of the share holders. It has been pointed out that they can force them as a company to take them back which is common practice with this sort of thing. As with all things on the forums stay tuned and see what happens before we pick up our torches and form a mob or start talking about the sky falling.

[Lochton]

According to the article (the poorly-spelled article) they can force Blizzard to cover the purchase of the 61% stock in shares, leaving Blizzard with the shares and out the money.

Actually, the article is wrong. Because Blizzard's budget is put under a secure plan with Activision. Not even Activision it self can touch their money do to every cent is flagged for reserrch and development resources.

So, in the end, the debt will be taking from Activision itself and/or the part the as formed the debt.

[Immitis]

i think vivendi should make candy.

vivendi chocolate bars, vivendi caramal nummies, vivendi cotton candy robot gummi destroyers.

it just fits