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Vivendi sells most of its Activision stake

By | Published on Monday 29 July 2013

Vivendi

Despite saying of late that its focus is on the entertainment side of its business, with plans to sell or spin off its flagging telecoms companies, Universal Music parent Vivendi has sold most of its majority stake in gaming giant Activision Blizzard, raising $8.2 billion in the process.

Vivendi took a majority stake in Activision in 2008, merging its existing gaming interests, mainly Blizzard Entertainment, with the company. Although it sold a very small slice of its Activision stock in 2011, it still owned just over 60% of the shares. Following the new deal announced on Friday Vivendi will become a minority shareholder with a 12% stake.

The nearly 50% of the company Vivendi has sold has been bought by Activision itself, and a consortium of individuals led by the gaming company’s CEO Bobby Kotick and Co-chairman Brian Kelly. For Vivendi the deal will provide a substantial cash boost that will help overcome balance sheet issues.

The deal will likely lead to new speculation that Vivendi may also look to sell Universal Music, even though doing so would be in conflict with recent statements from the French firm’s top guard. As previously reported, Japanese telecoms group SoftBank recently reportedly offered $8.5 billion for the Universal music company.



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