NBC will own Blizzard

[Guest]

The deals not final yet but both sides have agreed to it.

Blizzard is buying the Vivendi Entertainment but Vivendi will reatain an interest.

Of course they could always sell of Blizzard, but thats farther than anyone can see now.

[channel1]

I just heard that they have made an exclusive negotiation agreement, which means that no other parties can get in on the negotiations at this time. Notable was that the Bronfmans got cut out by this, since I figured that they were a pretty serious contender.

I think they said that the current offer involves GE/NBC taking 80%, and Vivendi retaining 20%. Interesting, since I'm sure that any deal that the Bronfmans would have proposed would have cut Vivendi out completely.

-rcv-

[Guest]

Actually it was a pretty good sweet talking job by NBC to have Vivendi decide to keep part ownership so as to keep the price down.

[--Pete]

Hi,

I've been following that news for months. The reports never mention the gaming divisions. So I had been wondering if they were included in the deal. Finally, in todays NY Times there was
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/03/business...pagewanted=1&th

On the second page of the article, towards the end, that part of Vivendi that would remain after the sale is discussed. The following quote leads me to believe that Blizzard would remain under Vivendi for at least the short term:

"Mr. Fourtou, at a news conference after the board meeting, said Vivendi was considering splitting the company in two, one company for its telephone activities and another for the remaining entertainment assets, like music, video games and Canal Plus."

--Pete

[Occhidiangela]

It's who is in, and who day to day runs, Blizzard that determines the quality of the games. So far, if we believe the folks at Blizz South who comment on such things, Vivendi has been pretty good about letting them set their own time lines for game release.

With no change in structure, I don't see that making much difference at the consumer end. What will create change is the chance that the departure of the Blizzard North brain trust will lead to Blizzard consolidating their ops in one location.

I don't understand the game market well enough to figure out if growth and extra title release is a better strategy than lower overhead, tight quality control, and fewer released titles.

Diablo III? I don't see it, but I have been wrong before. :)

[TaMeOlta]

Also up on Discussion at AB - couple more links provided there as well .... plus a few slightly OT comments ;)

[NiteFox]

You want an OT comment? Fine. At this rate I'm starting to think that I could own Blizzard :D

[Dozer]

:D If I lived in a cold climate, and it was winter, I could make a good joke out of that.