Why cant Blizzard leave Activision ?

[Ivarr]

Why can't you take the oranges out of the juice?

[Luxeley]

The way it looks like ,blizzard will be just another activision studio soon...

Soon? They've already been just another Activision Studio since WOD.

[Amorac]

But isnt it Mikes fault they merged? Why leaving then for a new studio with old values if he sold his soul before. Kinda strange.

Blizzard never merged right? Their owners did.

And Blizzard hasn't been independent since 1994 or so, when they were owned by Davidson & Associates. D&A was purchased by Cuc inc (?), Cuc merged with some hotel and car rental owning company (and formed Cendant), sold to Havas and Havas was bought by Vivendi and brought under Vivendi Games in 1998 or so. Vivendi Games then merged with Activision.

Blizzard only had a say in selling themselves to Davidson & Associates

[Dhrizzle]

How does that change anything? That just proves that Blizz isn't doing whatever they want. Both Activision and Blizzard are owned by that holding company which is going to force them to make decision to maximise profits regardless if it's good for the players or not in the long run.

Seriously, how is that any different than what the OP is saying. The fact is, someone has their greedy claws in Blizzard. It doesn't matter if that someone is named "Activision" or "my neighbour's dog's poop". It's the exact same thing.

By that standard Blizz stopped doing what they wanted before Warcraft 1 was released. The people holding the purse-strings after the formation of Acti-Blizz were essentially the same as the ones in charge for Warcraft 3, Diablo 2 and Vanilla WoW.

[owbu]

What could happen is a new megacorp coming in and buying blizzard which isnt interested in directly controlling them like Activision-blizzard is, because they don't know anything about games and are okay with regular paychecks no questions asked.

Like it used to be when blizzard was bringing out hit after hit and vivendi just let them do their thing (allegedly)

Sadly, blizzard of today is mostly remaking their old stuff with varied success and most of their new stuff is in dev hell or canceled or in maintainance mode. So I don't really see that happening unless d4 turns out to be the next money printing wow /overwatch.

[Nefastus]

Problem is it appears all people involved in the recent scandals (still we dont know more details besides the view of the victims) are from the original Blizzard.

[MoanaLisa]

they were bought out around a decade ago, give or take. I remember it happening and the whole community freaked out, and rightfully so, with activisions track record. Blizzard, as we knew it, has been rotting from the inside out for a long time. Some is activision, a lot is their own. I don't believe blizzard will ever stand on its own again.

They would have freaked out a lot more if Vivendi had implemented their plan to hollow out Blizzard for its assets and leave it essentially an empty shell. Vivendi was deeply in debt at the time and was going to go after Blizzard's cash reserves which would have made it difficult for them to continue operation. In other words, Vivendi was thinking about stripping Blizzard of most of its assets and then setting it adrift, probably to close.

You can look all of this up. I'm not a fan of Kotick either but it's largely true that Blizzard continues to exist today due to his moves to get Blizzard out from under Vivendi.

Here's a good article on all of that: https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...splits-vivendi

It never gets discussed here because it's complicated but it's an important part of the history of how we got to where we are.

- - - Updated - - -

What could happen is a new megacorp coming in and buying blizzard which isnt interested in directly controlling them like Activision-blizzard is, because they don't know anything about games and are okay with regular paychecks no questions asked.

Like, say, a hedge fund? Yeah, that will go well.

[Dhrizzle]

And? It is well documented that as payment for Blizzard, Vivendi would receive equity in the form of shares. In Activision's own words "Vivendi to Contribute Vivendi Games Valued at $8.1 Billion, Plus $1.7 Billion in Cash in Exchange for Approximately 52% Stake in Activision Blizzard at Closing; Total Transaction Valued at $18.9 Billion"

In short Vivendi gave Activision Vivendi games and some cash in return for shares.

https://investor.activision.com/stat...4-165f388591d5

That's a weird way of looking at it as Vivendi ended up with the majority of A-B's shares and a controlling interest.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

What about what Jason Schreier is saying in his tweets though?

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/st...73178820386817

Sounds like a whack of nonsense unless there’s something to actually back it up, we saw no big change in 2013 for example.

[Stormspellz]

to super generalize and simplify no one is looking to spend the 10billion + to buy blizzard from activision-blizzard

[D3athsting]

It would be like separating two siamese twins at this point

[Pann]

That's a weird way of looking at it as Vivendi ended up with the majority of A-B's shares and a controlling interest.

Well that's what happened.

[Raven]

Think we see Activision rather pull the plug on blizzard soon.
Only WoW keeps it up since blizzard produce almost no games anymore the last few years.

Blizzard became very lazy and now that WoW is in a downfall I wonder if blizzard has any future at all.

They are actually not lazy, right now other then Wow they are working on Hearthstone, Overwatch 2, Diablo 2, Diablo 4 and a so far Unannounced Project and going by the amount of people they have been looking for its not a small project.

[Dhrizzle]

Well that's what happened.

Yes, effectively Vivendi SA ended up in control of Activision and Blizzard. It's just weird you interpreted that as Activisiin buying Blizzard.

[Pann]

Yes, effectively Vivendi SA ended up in control of Activision and Blizzard. It's just weird you interpreted that as Activisiin buying Blizzard.

Vivendi were a major shareholder and had several positions on the board but it would be a stretch to say that they were in control of ATVI - being the majority shareholder does not automatically mean that you control the company. I interpret it as Activision buying Blizzard because that is exactly what happened. What do you think happened?

[Edge-]

being the majority shareholder does not automatically mean that you control the company.

That's literally what being majority shareholder means, you get the final say since nobody can outvote you. See Epic Games and them internally maintaining majority control as Tencent bought a huge minority stake (40%ish), it still leaves Epic Games in control of the company. Sure, you're not making the day-to-day decisions, but you're deciding on overall business strategy and significant hires etc.

[Jtbrig7390]

being the majority shareholder does not automatically mean that you control the company.

Actually that's exactly what it means.

People keep blaming Activision for Blizzard being shitty but Activision didn't own them until 2015 and Blizzard was shitty long before then. Before Activision they was owned by Vivendi and only two years (in the late 90's) was the company not owned by someone.

Being free doesn't fix the issues Blizzard has, new management does.

[Pann]

That's literally what being majority shareholder means, you get the final say since nobody can outvote you. See Epic Games and them internally maintaining majority control as Tencent bought a huge minority stake (40%ish), it still leaves Epic Games in control of the company. Sure, you're not making the day-to-day decisions, but you're deciding on overall business strategy and significant hires etc.

Not all shares are equal. The majority shareholder has considerable influence over the company however holding 50+1% does not grant the shareholder automatic control over the company.

[Raven]

Actually that's exactly what it means.

People keep blaming Activision for Blizzard being shitty but Activision didn't own them until 2015 and Blizzard was shitty long before then. Before Activision they was owned by Vivendi and only two years (in the late 90's) was the company not owned by someone.

Being free doesn't fix the issues Blizzard has, new management does.

1994 they where sold to Davidson & Associates, Davidson & Associates later sold it to Vivendi, and then later Vivendi purchased 52 percent of the stock in the newly formed Activision Blizzard. Both Activision and Blizzard maintained distinct corporate identities, with independent development and publishing streams. and later i belive Activision and Blizzard together bought back those 52%

[Pann]

Actually that's exactly what it means.

People keep blaming Activision for Blizzard being shitty but Activision didn't own them until 2015 and Blizzard was shitty long before then. Before Activision they was owned by Vivendi and only two years (in the late 90's) was the company not owned by someone.

Being free doesn't fix the issues Blizzard has, new management does.

I am not sure why you've mentioned blaming Activision whilst quoting me since I have not once mentioned blame. Oh and Activision owned Blizzard from 2008.