文档介绍：The bride and groom, a guitar-wielding rock vixen and a muscle-rippling dragon-slayer, make an odd couple—so it is hardly surprising that nobody expected their marriage. But on December 2nd the video-panies behind “Guitar Hero” and “World of Warcraft”, Activision and Vivendi Games respectively, announced plans for an elaborate merger. Vivendi, a French media group, will pool its games unit, plus $ billion in cash, with Activision; bined entity will then offer to buy back shares from Activision shareholders, raising Vivendi's stake in the resulting firm to as much as 68%.
Activision's boss, Bobby Kotick, will remain at the helm of the pany, to be known as Activision Blizzard in recognition of Vivendi's main gaming asset: its subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment, the firm behind “World of Warcraft”, an online swords-and-sorcery game with subscribers. The deal was unexpected, but makes excellent strategic sense, says Piers Harding-Rolls of Screen Digest, a consultancy. Activision has long coveted “World of Warcraft”, and Vivendi gets a bigger games division and Activision's talented management team to run it. As well as making sense for both parties, the $ billion deal—the biggest ever in the video-games industry—says a lot ab