John-ShepardIf you have a few extra bucks lying around, you can acquire the single biggest video game publisher on earth.
Oh, all right; you might need more than a "few extra bucks." As reported by Bloomberg , Vivendi is looking to unload their 61% stake in Activision Blizzard.
Earlier this week, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy battled the board of directors on the subject of restructuring the company and subsequently hit the bricks. Now, Vivendi is looking for a seller for its 61% share of Activision, which is worth about $8.1 billion. If they can't find a buyer, they'll turn to the open market to get rid of those shares. As for potential buyers, industry analyst Michael Pachter says he can't really think of one off hand.
"The problem is there are no readily apparent buyers for Activision. The only option left to Vivendi is to lever up Activision's balance sheet and pay out all of its cash as a dividend, then spin the company off."
What does this mean for gamers? Well, at this point, nothing. But a whole lot could change depending on the near future, so if you're a big-time Call of Duty or World of Warcraft aficionado, you might want to pay attention to the business news for a while.
