Rumour: Microsoft in frame to buy Activision majority share

[zarx]

Aielyn said:
I kind of wish that a few companies would joint-venture it, and buy Activision Blizzard together.

I'm visualising part-ownership by Valve, Take Two, and Square Enix. It's not going to happen, but it's what I'd like to see happen. Why those three? Square Enix already publishes a number of Activision titles in Japan (notably the CoD titles). Take Two are the ones that compete with EA in terms of sports franchises, and Valve have the distribution platform. Valve have the distribution platform, and seem to have a much better developer-to-publisher relationship.

In reality, I think the best possible result is Time Warner buying them. With Warner Bros' various IPs available (including, most notably, DC universe, the Bugs Bunny crew, and Hanna Barbera), Activision could actually make some interesting new titles - they just need to fire Kotick first. Time Warner is only a small part of the video game industry at this point, and having the Activision studios available would help them to become stronger, without unbalancing the industry.

But Kotick has been the best thing to happen to the company in terms of profit, if anything he would take over WB Interactive as well, if they didn't leave him in charge of Activision...

 

Also what possible reason would multiple publishers want a share in another publisher as a joint venture? So they can fund the competition?