Blizzard: Activision was our choice for merger
Contrary to what the many fans who shook their heads in disbelief believed when the news of the two publisher’s pending merger hit the press, the deal apparently wasn’t spurred by Vivendi and Activision. In fact, Paul Sams of Blizzard Entertainment revealed that the merger was pretty much their decision as well – or at least, they chose the company they wished to merge with. Get the full story at…well, the full story!
Blizzard‘s Paul Sams, chief of operations, said in an interview with GamesIndustry that the Activision Blizzard merger was their choice, and that the game company wasn’t dragged into the deal between Activision and Vivendi. In fact, Vivendi approached Blizzard and talked about the idea for a while, and it was Blizzard who picked Activision as their choice ally.
“I think maybe people believe that Activision and Vivendi got together and sat in a room, and thought it would be great, and then informed us,” said Sams.
But as he revealed at the World Wide Invitational, it was the other way around in fact: Blizzard was the one who said that it would be great idea. And it was Blizzard who informed Vivendi that Activision would be the perfect choice. He continued,
And honestly, when [Vivendi] said to us they were thinking about exploring the possibility of something like this, we said that if we were going to do something like that, it should be with Activision – those words came from our mouth.
CEO Mike Morhaime reassured fans back at the 2008 WWI that they won’t even feel a change in Blizzard’s operations, as the merger will not affect their work, their staff, or their projects.
The big change, however, will be who Morhaime has to report to. That would be Bobby Kotick, CEO and savior of an almost bankrupt Activision, who’s also going to be the CEO of the soon-to-be Activision Blizzard entity.
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