Last week Vivendi finance director Philippe Capron said that the company had eliminated the possibility of a “straight break-up” between its media and telecoms departments. Vivendi has had troubles in the past with selling off Activision-Blizzard, and this announcement seemed to indicate that Vivendi wasn’t actively pursuing anything at this time.
However a source for CVG has said that a sale of the gaming company “absolutely remains under consideration.”
Vivendi is pursuing a sale in order to help pay off its whopping 14 billion euro debts, and resurrect its falling share values, which have halved since 2007. Selling off Activision-Blizzard would be a fast solution, but the publisher and potential buyers can’t seem to agree on a price.
Reports are that Microsoft was in discussion with Vivendi but negotiations hadn’t gone any further, and Sony weren’t interested at all.
Last week Capron said that the debt was not forcing Vivendi’s hand, and that the company “does not have to sell anything or do anything immediately”.
Source: CVG
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Not really surprising. Neither Activision or Blizzard have been very renowned for creating new IP in the last 10 years. Blizzard also just showed us that one flop can kill a whole franchise (Diablo 3). How long will the WoW cash cow last and what happens then?