by David Piner on Dec 03, 2007
Am I the only one who thinks that that's kind of a silly name?
In a surprising move, Blizzard announced today that parent company Vivendi has entered into an agreement with Activision which will merge their entertainment business (including Blizzard) with Activision creating a new company which they'll call Activision Blizzard.
Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Vivendi (Euronext Paris: VIV) today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business -- which includes Blizzard Entertainment's® World Of Warcraft®, the world's #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise -- with Activision, creating the world's largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.
Read the official press release here.