Vivendi to sell 5.8% stake in Activision Blizzard for $866 mn

French mass media company Vivendi SA today said that it will sell around half of its remaining stake in US video game publisher Activision Blizzard, as part of its plan of transforming itself into a pure-play media company.

The sale comes a month after the Paris-based company agreed to sell its telecom unit SFR Group SA to Numericable, the French cable company controlled by the billionaire Patrick Drahi, in an over $23-billion deal. (See: Vivendi agrees to sell telecom unit SFR to Numericable in an over $23-bn deal)

Last year, it sold its 53-per cent stake in North African phone operator Itisalat Al Maghrib or Maroc Telecom for €4.2 billion.

Vivendi will sell 41.5 million Activision Blizzard shares worth about $866 million at current market prices. The sale represents 5.8 per cent of the Nasdaq-listed company's shares.

The last reported sale price of Activision Blizzard on 20 May was $20.83 per share.

Following the sale, Vivendi will still own 41.5 million Activision Blizzard shares.

Santa Monica, California-based Activision Blizzard, formed through the $18.8-billion merger between Activision and Vivendi Games in 2007, is the largest US video-game publisher with blockbuster games that includes Call of Duty and World of War Craft.

It is the only publisher with leading market positions across all categories of the video game industry.

Its portfolio includes best-selling video games such as Spider-Man, X-Men, James Bond and Transformers, leading franchises such as Spyro and Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft, Diablo, and Warcraft franchises.

Activision Blizzard has operations in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, India, China, South Korea and Taiwan.

The company has a market capitalisation of $14.9 billion, and posted net profit of $1 billion in 2013 on revenues of $4.6 billion.