News

Analyst: Vivendi sale in Activision/Blizzard stock may force Titan reveal
Posted: 28.06.2012 07:15 by JonahFalcon Comments: 2
Seeking Alpha analyst Jeff Borack has opined in his blog that if Vivendi sells a sizeable chunk of its Activision-Blizzard shares - of which it owns 61% of the company stock - that may force Blizzard to unveil its Project Titan MMO project.

According to Borack, "Titan is a key driver of long-term shareholder value. Blizzard has been expensing tens of millions of dollars into R&D every year to develop a game that has yet to generate a dollar of revenue. But once released, revenue from Titan will likely ramp faster than for WoW and should quickly eclipse it. Few companies have such an attractive opportunity for incremental reinvestment. At the very least, an official announcement will give investors an idea of how much development work has been done and it will allow us to model some Titan revenue to offset WoW losses."

Borack went on to say that if Vivendi wanted to generate cash, they would or should issue a press release detailing just what Project Titan is, and only after then optionally sell shares of stock as the value of Activision-Blizzard soared from investor interest.

Three weeks ago, rumors started circulating that Vivendi would sell its controlling stock of Activision-Blizzard due to financial problems.
Source: VG247

Comments

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Jun 28, 2012
nocutius
So Vivendi has financial issues, that explains why they'd be willing to sell Blizzard.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jun 28, 2012
herodotus
Blizzard tends to spend more than they earn so it's no wonder Vivendi lose money from them, and Activision really just have the "CoD" franchise as the only source of their income so I'd be offloading these vampires as well. If the sale does go though, then yes Blizzard will have to prove it's money earning potential with what works it has in progress. It may just get new orders as well, such as:
"It will be done when WE say its done Blizzard, not you".