Activision Inc. produced three of the top 10 video games in 2007 and generated more than $1 billion in revenues. But it didn’t have a blockbuster title in the fast-growing multiplayer online gaming market. In late 2007, Robert Kotick, Activision’s CEO and a man with a reputation as one of the smartest and toughest in the business, approached Vivendi Games, which published “World of Warcraft” — a wildly popular online game set in a gothic fantasy world that has attracted 11.5 million users who spend $15 per month to play against each other — through its subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Kotick made an offer for Blizzard but Vivendi countered by suggesting that the two companies merge — with Kotick at the helm. The merger, which was completed last July, resulted in a publicly traded company, Activision Blizzard Inc., that is now running neck and neck, as measured by revenues, with longtime leader Electronic Arts Inc., while surpassing it in profits.
