Activision Blizzard has today announced it will buy back approximately $5.83 billion in shares (around 429 million Company shares) from Vivendi. In addition to this, a separate investment group led by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and co-chairman Brian Kelly will purchase a further 172 million Company shares for approximately $2.34 billion.
Once the transaction is complete Vivendi will no longer be the majority shareholder, with its stake reduced to 83 million shares (around 12% of total). Activision Blizzard will be an independent company with the majority of its shares owned by the public.
“These transactions together represent a tremendous opportunity for Activision Blizzard and all its shareholders, including Vivendi,” said Kotick in a statement. “We should emerge even stronger—an independent company with a best-in-class franchise portfolio and the focus and flexibility to drive long-term shareholder value and expand our leadership position as one of the world's most important entertainment companies. The transactions announced today will allow us to take advantage of attractive financing markets while still retaining more than $3 billion cash on hand to preserve financial stability.”
In July last year, as news began to emerge that Vivendi was looking to offload all or part of its majority stake in Activision Blizzard, the most likely buyer was reported to be Activision Blizzard itself.
Vivendi, which is said to owe $17.3 billion in net debt, was reported on Monday to be considering yanking around $3 billion from Activision’s cash reserves by way of a “special dividend.” The move would have netted about $2 billion for Vivendi.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can find him on IGN here or on Twitter @MrLukeReilly, or chat with him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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