VG247

Potential buyers for Vivendi’s 60 percent share of Activision Blizzard include Microsoft, Time Warner and Tencent, news source Reuters has reported.

 Media corporation Vivendi has apparently started “testing the appetite” of potential buyers for part or all of its 60 percent share of Activision Blizzard, Reuters has said.

The process has not yet officially begun, but bankers close to Vivendi are said to be sounding out the likes of Chinese company Tencent as well as Time Warner and Microsoft.

“It’s nothing official yet, but they’ve asked a bank to go and talk to possible buyers for Activision,” said a source close to the Vivendi board.

A sale by Vivendi could supposedly help raise up to $10 billion to shore up its share price. Reuters reported that both Microsoft and Time Warner declined to comment on possible buy-out.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/11/rumour-microsoft-in-frame-to-buy-activision-majority-share/

Ooh, this would be great if Mircosoft bought it and made CoD an Xbox exclusive. I don't even know why Vivendi are selling it in the first place though...it's their only major asset.

I think Vivendi are crazy to sell Activision for short term profit... Anyway, if MS bought it and CoD became Xbox exclusive it'd be a huge deal.

highly doubt it
but it will be funny if they bought AB,not because COD or Diablo or WOW,it's because..."oh hey bungie,you need to work with us in next 10 years"

Say good bye to Sony if this is true.

Thankfully, this is probably a rumor.

Oh dear, please no.

HOLY MAN THIS WOULD BE AN AMAZING MOVE. Make COD exclusive = crazy start to next gen. Wow if M$ does this

Microsoft would be insane to buy them out now. Perhaps 3-4 years ago, they could have done so sensibly - back when the CoD brand was just taking off, WoW was massive, Guitar Hero was still popular, and Activision's share price was lower.

Right now, Activision doesn't have any standout franchises in the process of being established (indeed, they have little by way of new franchises at all, from what I can see). The closest they have is the Skylanders expanded IP, and that's nothing like the powerhouses that Activision have had.

Call of Duty is being driven pretty hard, with most people anticipating a significant drop in sales either with the next entry (Black Ops II) or the one following it. Indeed, the main talent associated with the Modern Warfare subfranchise have all left to make a new studio under EA (side note: EA are now more hated than Activision. Is it possible that Zampella and West are the cause of all the animosity - EA was most hated back when Zampella worked for 2015 inc, where they worked on Medal of Honor for WA. They then made Infinity Ward and were bought by Activision, who subsequently became the most hated. Now they're back at EA under Respawn Entertainment, and EA is most hated again).

And because of the nature of FPS, it is likely that, if CoD became first-party for MS, people who played CoD on the PS3 would move to a different franchise (probably MoH, given how similar it looks to CoD, now) rather than switch consoles.

In short, if MS are even considering it, then they need to stop, now. Especially given that Activision is strongest in America, where MS already has a comfortable lead over Sony. What MS needs to do is look East - they'd be better off trying to acquire Capcom, Square Enix, Namco Bandai, or Tecmo Koei.

I would be curious to see if they'd really make Call Of Duty an Xbox exclusive. Would the extra consoles sold be worth missing out on sales of around 12 million copies of the game? (Well not 12m since there would be users that would make the switch but still a shitload of sales to miss out on)

I really doubt Microsoft would buy Activision, if they did though, well it would certainly make the next generation very interesting