Video game publisher Activision Blizzard plans to become independent from Vivendi with a purchase of the bulk of the parent company’s majority stake for $8.2 billion.
Activision Blizzard is the parent of Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, also a video game developer and publisher.
Vivendi, the French conglomerate that controls Activision Blizzard, will sell 429 million of its shares to the Santa Monica-based company for $5.8 billion, while an additional 172 million shares will be sold to an investors group that includes Activision Blizzard’s chief executive, Robert Kotick, and its co-chairman, Brian Kelly.
The group will pay about $2.3 billion. Vivendi said it will keep about a 12% stake, or 83 million shares, in Activision Blizzard.
That leaves the investing public holding the majority of shares in the company.
The deal specifies that Kotick will remain chief executive and that Kelly will be the only chairman.
—Staff Report
