Activision/Blizzard Merger Shows Video Game Industry Challenges

In late 2007, Activision CEO Robert Kotick, the jolly-looking entrepreneur known as one of the smartest and toughest in the business, approached Vivendi Games, which published World of Warcraft through its subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment Inc. Kotick made an offer for Blizzard, but Vivendi countered by suggesting that the two companies merge ' with Kotick at the helm. The merger, which was completed in July 2008, created a publicly traded company, Activision Blizzard Inc., that is the most impressive video game business in the world ' running neck-and-neck in revenues with longtime leader Electronic Arts Inc. ' and surpassing it in profits.

33 minute readJanuary 28, 2009 at 02:22 PM
By
Theodora Blanchfield
Activision/Blizzard Merger Shows Video Game Industry Challenges

Activision Inc. had three of the top-10 video games in 2007 and over $1 billion in revenue. But it didn't have a big title in the fast-growing multiplayer online gaming

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