Vivendi, original parent company of Activision Blizzard, sold its shares in the company today for $1.1 billion dollars. 41.5 million shares were sold off, which was a 5.7 percent ownership of Activision. Vivendi claimed they leap at this chance due to a record high stock price on Activision’s part, with shares trading for $35. 40 each yesterday.
What’s interesting to note is that Vivendi is most certainly not withdrawing from the industry. If you recall, they attempted to buy out Ubisoft and Gameloft late last year. Activision also bought a large sum of Vivendi’s ownership from them in 2013, and Vivendi previously sold another large sum of shares in 2014. Maybe Vivendi sees more in Ubisoft than Activision? Maybe they want to expand out of the US? Maybe I don’t know anything about this, but it seems like a big shake up is on the horizon for at least one of the big game companies we all know and put up with.