Vivendi May Sell Activision Blizzard to Microsoft or Time Warner

[back_by_demand]

The story says they are feilding potential buyers - including Microsft or Tkme Warner - it does not say they are interested.

$10 billion is not chump change to anyone but when your company costs that much there are very few who can afford it. Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft spring to mind in the IT sector and only Microsoft has previously done games, so obviously they will approch Microsoft.

If they fail to find a buyer they may fragment into futher smaller divisions, like de-merging Blizzard and selling that on its own. Watch this space.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]redgarl[/nom]Not that I liked them, but it would be a major blow to PC gaming. Call of Duty, Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo exclusive to the Xbox... because we all know it would be the case.[/citation]
The convergence of Xbox into all MS products, Windows 8, Windows Phone, Console - likely would not be console exclusive for anything, I forsee a future of buy once play anywhere, similar to what Steam is trying to do with Mac and Linux.

 

[Guest]

They are selling, because they know that Titan will suck even worse than Diablo 3.

 

[junixophobia]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]The convergence of Xbox into all MS products, Windows 8, Windows Phone, Console - likely would not be console exclusive for anything, I forsee a future of buy once play anywhere, similar to what Steam is trying to do with Mac and Linux.[/citation]

Steam =! m$
But you can dream

 

[djscribbles]

So they are looking at dropping a growing media (video games) to return to their roots in a dieing media (TV broadcasting and music publishing). Seems like a plan only Vivendi could conceive of.

However, I believe it would be good news for gamers; Vivendi really does seem to be a terrible company.

 

[tomfreak]

sell to anyone that willing to delete kotick. He must not be in there.

 

[sa1nt]

[citation][nom]Pyree[/nom]How about Valve?[/citation]
Valve itself is worth less than a quarter of Blizzard.

 

[stemnin]

Oh if there is a god, hell no!

 

[digiex]

Google would be better.

 

[southernshark]

MS has been doing games a long time and the games weren't bad. They weren't super exciting, but they weren't crap like EA either.

I think MS would do a better job than "V" has to be honest.

 

[RipperjackAU]

Merging Activision/Blizzard with Micro$oft = WoW coming to the XBox 360!

 

[zak_mckraken]

In the hypotehtical scenario that Microsoft buys Activision/Blizzard, games would NOT become exclusive to the Xbox. The money is not in selling consoles, it's in selling games and services. Microsoft would have nothing to gain for not letting games be released for competing consoles. They do need a couple of exclusive titles to make sure they keep enough Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, but most titles would be multiplatform.

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]officeguy[/nom]Seriously... I didn't know they had such devices in 1853. Phonograph didn't come out until 1877 according to wiki. What did they have before then?[/citation]
Dunno why you got thumbed down, Vivendi wasn't even Vivendi until 1998 and didn't get into music or TV until 1983. Before that they were in construction, waste management, electricity services and other things like that.

 

[spoogie]

Can't wait to read the headlines 3-4 years after this goes down: "Microsoft Loses $Billions as Blizzard Tanks"

 

[xerroz]

[citation][nom]Pyree[/nom]How about Valve?[/citation]
I don't think they can even afford half of it . Neither can EA. Activi$ion/Blizzard will land in the hands of another media conglomerate and I doubt MS will take them.

 

[hiruu]

Considering that MSFT paid $8.5 for Skype...this seems reasonable. It makes sense...years ago, I thought MSFt should have bought Marvel, for the breadth of IPs it provided...they didn't...This buy would be huge for them, moving into the next generation of consoles.

 

[Max Collodi]

[citation][nom]officeguy[/nom]Seriously... I didn't know they had such devices in 1853. Phonograph didn't come out until 1877 according to wiki. What did they have before then?[/citation]
Sheet Music. Before recording devices were invented, music was notated and distributed on sheets of paper. In fact examples of music publishing have been found on stone tablets dating as far back as 1400 BC in Syria. Music publishing is not a recent invention.

 

[eddieroolz]

Time for Time Warner to mess up Blizzard and Activision, just like they messed up my dear Call of Duty :lol:

 

[Guest]

Microsoft would be bad . All blizzard games being xbox primarily wouldnt be good but better than time warner , time warner would destroy them for sure.

 

[Guest]

Going to be hard finding companies willing to shell that much for slow returns. If it gets bought
as a whole will probably be from investment firms. If not then will be broken up and sell in
pieces which may or not fetch for more $. Whichever the case will be if they do sell ACT/BLIZ,
those devs aren't what they what they use to be. Employees will just leave and either find
another dev or some will band and start a new one. Best if more new start up devs are born to
re-energize the market as too many were lost and consolidated.