Activision and Blizzard Join Forces

On Sunday, we received word that two of PC gaming’s biggest companies (one of which is also console gaming’s biggest, thanks to Guitar Hero) will be joining forces to take on the future of electronic gaming, which, apparently, involves mega-huge developers going toe-to-toe in epic style for gamers’ dollars. Vivendi Universal and Activision released a statement on December 2 stating that the new company would henceforth and evermore be known as Activision Blizzard.

In any such merger, the question eventually arises: “Who’s on top, and who’s on the bottom?” In this case, Activision’s CEO Robert Kotick will be the CEO of the new company, with Vivendi’s former CEO, Bruce Hack, ending up as vice-chairman and Chief Corporate Officer. Vivendi, however, will have a 52% stake in the new company once all is said and done with the 18.2-billion-dollar deal. The boards of both companies have approved the merger, but it currently awaits stockholder approval.

Mike Morhaime added: “Blizzard’s industry-leading PC games business, with a track record of nine consecutive bestsellers and a global subscriber base of more than 9.3 million World of Warcraft players, is an exceptional fit for Activision’s highly profitable console games business. From our interactions with the Activision team, it is clear we have much in common in terms of our approaches to game development and publishing. Above all, we are looking forward to continue creating great games for Blizzard gamers around the world, and we believe this new partnership will help us to do that even better than before.”

Around here, we’ll likely begin referring to the company as ‘Actiblizz.’

Source: IGN