Vivendi—who holds a 60% stake in Activision— is apparently looking to sell off their shares of the gaming giant. Reuters have mentioned in a report that Vivendi have approached a bank to help them pinpoint potential buyers for Activision/Blizzard and apparently, some of the candidates happen to include Microsoft, TenCent and Time Warner. TenCent is a major games distributor in China and are currently working with Activision on the upcoming free-to-play Call of Duty: Online title for China. However, Michael Pachter, a Wedbush analyst stated, “none of these (potential buyers) make sense.” He went on to say, “TenCent is the only one actively acquiring, and they make much smaller acquisitions. Time Warner has never spent more than $150 million on game investments. Microsoft would lose a lot of value if Call of Duty was Xbox only. None of these are buyers.”
If the selling off of shares turns out to be true, Vivendi could stand to make $10 billion by doing so. What are your thoughts on this situation?