Activision-Blizzard Takes Its Money And Runs
When French media parent company Vivendi was rumored to be thinking about taking three billion dollars from the four billion dollar offshore piggy bank accounts of Activision-Blizzard [creators of the massively popular “Call of Duty” video game series] to help pay off their whopping $17 billion dollar debt, A-B decided instead, that they would take their money and buy back shares of themselves in a quest to go independent. A-B has purchased, in two separate transactions, 601 million shares of Vivendi for eight billion dollars and will go independent when the transaction is completed in September.
Vivendi retains 12% ownership of Activision-Blizzard, which will have its “Call of Duty: Ghosts” video game debut for Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 video game consoles in November.