Blizzard and Activision Announce $18.8bn Merger

Ebon Praetor writes "The BBC reports that Blizzard and Activision have announced an $18.8bn merger. Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick, will become the head of the joint company, while Vivendi, Blizzard's current parent company, will become the largest single investor in the new group. Even with the size of the merger, the combined company will still be smaller than the industry giant EA. 'As part of the merger plan, Blizzard will invest $2bn in the new company, while Activision is putting up $1bn. The merged business will be called Activision Blizzard ... Vivendi will be the biggest shareholder in the group.'"

A dupe in itself?

[hysma]

Not too often the summary itself IS the dupe...

I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[Seumas]

I can't wait to start buying their games and various swag -- all emblazoned with the new Blactavision logos!

New MMORPG

[Valacosa]

World of Command and Conquer?

My gosh

[guardiangod]

Activision and Blizzard have said they will form "the world's most profitable games business"

I screamed.

Re:I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[shystershep]

I prefer the Actalizzard, myself.

$18.8bn?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are the amounts quoted in Barbadian dollars?

some questions

[gEvil (beta)]

So, does anyone know who's going to be put in charge of the new company? And what about Vivendi? I thought they owned part of Blizzard. Any word on them?

Re:I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[gEvil (beta)]

I'm kinda partial to Blizzavision.

Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

a chance for a classic to be reborn!

world of pitfall anyone?

COD5: Azeroth Edition

[Anonymous Coward]

Call of Duty 5, Azeroth Edition-

"{crackle} SGT Hulka, bring up your platoon of Orcs and get a crossfire on those Dwarves STAT!"

Re:Guitarcraft: Lords of Music

[rootofevil]

Thrall Pro Skater 2: grinding in dalaran

Yo!

[bennomatic]

Activizza in da hizza!

"Blactavision" makes me think of "Blacula". But silly as that (and my suggestion) sounds, it's better than "Activision Blizzard". What were they thinking? They may as well have called themselves "No Imagination Games Corp."

-Keeping Activision (on its own) would have been cool for the nostalgia factor.
-Keeping Blizzard (on its own) would have been cool for the currently-successful factor
-If they couldn't decide, they should have just gotten a new name altogether. Maybe they could have sold themselves as a bridge between the gaming industry and general media distributors and called themselves gPod. Or maybe Gune...

Re:I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[Anonymous Coward]

Shut yo mouff!

I'm just talking about Blactavision!

Re:World Of Warcraft

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, obviously they bought Blizzard out so that they could nerf warriors; it had nothing to do with the money.

Activision Blizzard

[bcharr2]

Activision Blizzard? That's the best name they could come up with?

If they wanted to depend on brand name recognition, they should have simply called themselves "The Creators of WOW & Call of Duty".

Re:I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[flyingsquid]

I'm kinda partial to Blizzavision.

No, that's what causes me to hit on ugly chicks after six drinks.

Re:I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[BorgCopyeditor]

You shouldn't complain about something that pushes your chances of getting laid up into the single digits. :-o

Re:I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[TomHandy]

I can dig it.

Re:(Shudder...)

[cdomigan]

I seriously hope that the new overlords don't mess with this

Not the end of the world if they do - you can always SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS

Massively Multiplayer Pitfall!

[tachyonflow]

As someone who mostly associates the name "Activision" with old titles, the first thing that popped in my head when I read this was... "Massively Multiplayer Pitfall!"

Re:I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[macz]

How about just "Blizzard" since Activision is the one that needs Blizzard's credibility to prop it up?

Dear Zonk

[cralewyth]

Dear Zonk,

You shouldn't repeat yourself in your summary, it makes the summary redundant. It's like when you say something twice and it becomes redundant.

Oh, thank the FSM...

[Dirtside]

Finally, I'll be able to stop playing WoW! It's so addictive now, but I'm sure Activision will somehow find a way to fuck it up so that it won't be fun, and I'll finally be able to quit.

Thanks, Activision! (Thactivision.)

Re:I can't wait until I can buy their games.

[Anonymous Coward]

AcTard.

Buying Notes

[rpgSE]

I wonder if we can now trade our Warcraft Gold for new Songs for Guitar Hero III on sites like mmoExchange.com or GamerTex.com

Re:New MMORPG

[jmoriarty]

Damn - upon further research...

There are certain things regular Slashdot readers come to expect from this site, and researched posts or comments is not one of them. Please don't let it happen again.

Re:World Of Warcraft

[Anonymous Coward]

Activision's CEO is tired of being "pwned by crazy leet zons" in Diablo 2. Since Blizzard has ceased development on Diablo 2 patches, the only way to remedy the situation was to buy out Blizzard and start development on the next patch.

Re:Uptime improvements? How many 8's of uptime?

[Anonymous Coward]

1/8, 2/8, etc.

Re:Commentary

[jd]

The Ghost of Infocom cries out in the wind.
The Ghost of Infocom moves north.
The Ghost of Infocom enters.
The Ghost of Infocom hits Blizzard with the long sword.