[citation][nom]gilgamex[/nom]Hmmmm I find this exceedingly weird, how does a company sit at $67.06 in 2007 and have only financial blockbusters and a consistent player base in world of warcraft reaching past the 10mill mark during this time frame go all the way down to $12?? Call of duty breaking its own records with each release just about. I mean I get the whole companies value not necessarily reflected accurately on the stock price, much like facebook dropped a solid 15$ or more from when it started at $15. But, Idk, Blizzard OR Activision haven't really messed up at all the last 5 years, no major IP flop or anything. Strange that no one would buy it.[/citation]
What do you mean really hasn't messed up? Yes, they have had success with Call of Duty, but look at the mess Bobby Kotick put them in over the acquisition of CoD. He got them in a major lawsuit because he blatantly violated the contract with Infinity Ward when Activision Blizzard acquired them. He also completely ran Guitar Hero from a super successful game series to a non existant one. Blizzard may have had a great name, but the moment Kotick got in as CEO of Activision Blizzard once Vivendi bought Activision from him, he ruined it.
WoW had more subscribers when the merger happened in 2008 than they do today. Look at how many of the Diablo 3 "sales" were in fact give aways to keep WoW from bleeding subscribers with the Annual Pass.
Go here
http/www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252 and read that link about how bad Kotick is for gaming. That poster did a lot of research and has the links to back up all the Kotick quotes and other interviews.
Of course I am not going to feel sorry for Vivendi, Kotick had a bad reputation long before Vivendi bought Activision from him and should have known what they were in for by getting into business with him and letting him run their games division.