Relevant News: Blizzard: Nothing will Change

Vivendi & Activision Merging to Form Activision Blizzard

The newly announced Activision Blizzard will become the largest third party publisher in the world in 2008. Next Generation reported that Electronic Arts, currently the number one third party publisher, might try to buy more shares of rival UbiSoft to keep its number one status.

Following the announcement that Vivendi is set to acquire a majority stake in Guitar Hero publisher Activision, forming a new company named Activision Blizzard, the French media conglomerate's share price rose 3.22 percent Monday morning.

Vivendi's share price was not the only one to jump, reports Reuters, as speculation of further industry consolidation mounted.

Shares in rival French publishers Ubisoft and Atari parent Infogrames rose 6.8 percent and 7.7 percent respectively.

Daily French financial newspaper Les Echos said Vivendi's move to take control of Activision could result in Electronic Arts, which is likely to be ousted by Activision Blizzard as the world's largest third party videogame publisher, retaliating by raising its 15 percent stake in Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell publisher Ubisoft.

Currently EA owns about 20 percent of UbiSoft's stock.

News Original From: http://www.firingsquad.com/

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