Tencent only bought 6% of the shares.
Well-known game developer Activision Blizzard spent $5.83 billion to buy back part of the shares held by its parent company Vivendi, France, raising the management shareholding ratio to 62.5%; In addition, the investment consortium led by Bobby Kodick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, also participated in the transaction, spending $2.34 billion to acquire about 24.9% of the shares from Vivendi. After the transaction is completed, Vivendi's shareholding in Activision Blizzard has been reduced from 665,438+0% to 65,438+02%.
Tencent, a domestic internet giant, also participated in the transaction and joined the consortium led by Bobby Kodick as the only industrial investor. Through strategic shareholding, Tencent owns about 6% of the shares of Activision Blizzard.
Although Tencent's shareholding in Activision Blizzard is not high in this transaction of acquiring Vivendi shares, after Tencent's shareholding, the cooperation between Netease and Blizzard was once again hotly debated by the industry. According to the latest data released by Activision Blizzard, the number of players in World of Warcraft dropped by 600,000 last quarter, from 8.3 million last quarter to 7.7 million.
Cooperate first and then invest.
An insider revealed to reporters that Tencent was actively seeking opportunities to invest in Activision Blizzard a year and a half ago. However, due to Vivendi's uncertain attitude and careful consideration of investment risks, Tencent finally chose to assist Activision Blizzard management to buy back a small amount of equity.
Obviously, Vivendi, a French company holding 6 1% equity of Activision Blizzard, has the decision-making power of this transaction. Due to the high debt of billions of dollars caused by the rapid expansion in the past few years and the decline of the economic situation, Vivendi has been "slimming" to save herself in recent years.
At present, Vivendi's business spans telecommunications, music, audio-visual and games. From September 2065438 to September 2002, Vivendi promoted its Universal Music Company to acquire EMI records for $65,438.09 billion, paving the way for the content integration of Vivendi's wireless business, which was also regarded as the change of Vivendi's strategic direction. The liquidity brought by Activision Blizzard, a Nasdaq listed company, and the value of the company's income can bring "money bags" to Vivendi's strategic deployment.
Ding Sanshi said that Tencent's acquisition of Blizzard shares will not affect the cooperation between Netease and Blizzard.
Ding Lei, CEO and director of Netease, said that Tencent's acquisition of some shares in Blizzard will not affect the cooperation between Netease and Blizzard.
Netease has been focusing on self-developed games in recent years, and only cooperates with Blizzard in agent games. However, on July 26th, Tencent participated in the redemption of Activision Blizzard and acquired 6% of the shares. CLSA analysts asked whether the acquisition would affect the cooperation between Netease and Blizzard.
Ding Lei said that Tencent Holdings Activision Blizzard will not affect the cooperative relationship between Netease and Blizzard. Netease and Blizzard have very close cooperation. Netease and Blizzard have the same idea, which makes them unite to serve China players.
Several games represented by Netease are all from Blizzard, but the resources represented by competitors are more and more diverse. Faced with this situation, Ding Lei said that as long as there is a product that meets the market demand, whether at home or abroad, Netease will consider cooperating with its development company to represent the product. This is one of the strategies that Netease will adhere to in the future.