Why Didn't Blizzard Entertainment ever go Private?

[TZK203]

Wouldn't that have helped them not being pressured by investors and stockholders to report on quarterly earnings, therefore helping them to not rush to develop games or products a month or two before the Q1-Q4 annual reports so as to attain the most possible revenue from their consumer base? Wouldn't that increase the quality of their products and make them shine amongst their competition as being the #1 company that takes times developing their products?

I know with the merger and becoming Activision-Blizzard, the above scenario is never going to happen today (or at least it'll be very unlikely). I'm just curious as to why they never gave it a thought...

[usiris]

Short version is when they were young, they needed money to keep going and sold out(not the bad kind) to a larger education company which later sold out to Vivendi.

Longer version here

[mvaliz]

Blizzard was a budding developer and did some research on acquiring capital - when they happened upon this particular financial documentary made in the late 1960s:

[Sunseeker]

Businesses over a certain size in the USA are required to go public.

[Kasierith]

Businesses over a certain size in the USA are required to go public.

Are you sure about this? I know there are some pretty massive private companies within the US; Dell has well over 100,000 employees.

[Last Starfighter]

Yeah, access to more money doesn't always equal a better game. They did alot more with alot less.

[Sunseeker]

Are you sure about this? I know there are some pretty massive private companies within the US; Dell has well over 100,000 employees.

Dell is publicly traded last time I checked.

By "public" I mean sell stock, as in: Bob and Joe can't own the company all by themselves (though they can use front companies).

[Maconi]

They went public because they gave in to greed (in their defense I think they were getting into a tight spot and needed the additional resources). It's happened to a lot of companies who have learned their lessons down the road.

The only reason to stay private is to readjust the company as you (the CEO/board) see fit. I think we'll see Dell (an example of a public company going private) going public again before long, after they reorganize the company the way they want it (vs how the stockholders want it).

Dell is publicly traded last time I checked.

By "public" I mean sell stock, as in: Bob and Joe can't own the company all by themselves (though they can use front companies).

Forbes - Dell Officially Goes Private: Inside The Nastiest Tech Buyout Ever

[Dragoncurry]

u go public bc its easier to acquire capital. blizzard retains a lot of control with different classes of stock giving them additional voting power so it dont really matter decision wise. its not that they did more with less. its that we expected less with less and were more satisfied. now blizzard could create the greatest game in teh world and you would have 5000000 people complaining about LFR with another 500000 complaining about flying with another 500000 complaining about why the sun comes up every morning.

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They went public because they gave in to greed (in their defense I think they were getting into a tight spot and needed the additional resources). It's happened to a lot of companies who have learned their lessons down the road.

The only reason to stay private is to readjust the company as you (the CEO/board) see fit. I think we'll see Dell (an example of a public company going private) going public again before long, after they reorganize the company the way they want it (vs how the stockholders want it).



http://www.forbes.com/sites/conniegu...round-anymore/

Uh no, greed isn't always a factor. It's easier to acquire capital for your projects/hiring/expansion etc.

[bals]

Businesses over a certain size in the USA are required to go public.

that is not true.

[SL1200]

Because bobby kotick

[Kasierith]

Dell is publicly traded last time I checked.

By "public" I mean sell stock, as in: Bob and Joe can't own the company all by themselves (though they can use front companies).

It was taken private in 2013, and is apparently the largest privately owned company in the region. They removed their stocks from the market.

For Blizzard, there are numerous reasons why they won't go private now; it's very hard to restructure a company from public to private, and just consolidating the ownerships they would need would take a great deal of effort. Also, the benefits of being a corporation in the modern gaming industry are pretty good; fluidity in the market is a good thing to have.

[obdigore]

Are you sure about this? I know there are some pretty massive private companies within the US; Dell has well over 100,000 employees.

Once a company has over 10million in resources and has at least 500 shareholders, they must start acting as if they are public (re: information release/earnings calls). Edit: This doesn't mean their stock is publically traded. Just that they have to act like they are.

There is no actual requirement to go public, although generally your original investors will make you go public so they can recoup their investment.

[Mormolyce]

Wouldn't that have helped them not being pressured by investors and stockholders to report on quarterly earnings, therefore helping them to not rush to develop games or products a month or two before the Q1-Q4 annual reports so as to attain the most possible revenue from their consumer base?

I'm guessing because that has never been a problem for them.

Blizzard has actually had it pretty good in that respect, compared to many other studios from the 90s to today.

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Because bobby kotick

Didn't I just finish reading that Kotick's group only owns like 25% of the shares?

[Milchshake]

Businesses over a certain size in the USA are required to go public.

People are probably construing this a "there's a law" requiring companies to go public. Which is false.

More like the law of competition. If companies want to compete on a bigger stage against bigger companies, they have to go public to compete.

[belfpala]

Are you sure about this? I know there are some pretty massive private companies within the US; Dell has well over 100,000 employees.

Cargill is the largest private company in the US, by revenue, I think.

There's no need to go public unless you want a big cash inflow (or a big payout on your way out the door).

[obdigore]

Cargill is the largest private company in the US, by revenue, I think.

There's no need to go public unless you want a big cash inflow (or a big payout on your way out the door).

Cargill is #1.

Dell is third behind Koch Industries.

[GuideToWhat]

I'm sure they make more money from being private.

[Bathory]

They went public because they gave in to greed

There's a big difference between business strategy and greed. Of course it's easy to look back and say what they "should have done".

[belfpala]

There's a big difference between business strategy and greed. Of course it's easy to look back and say what they "should have done".

Greed is the point of business, at its core. Essentially, "I will make this product or provide this service and charge more than it cost me so that I can write myself a paycheck." That's what it's about.

Altruism comes in, also. "I will charge more than what this cost so I can also pay other people to help me do it."

The question of greed is at what point it becomes excessive greed.