Editing Activision (section)

=== Merger with Vivendi Games (2008) ===
{{main|Activision Blizzard}}
While Activision was highly successful with its range of developers and successful series, Kotick was concerned that they did not have a title for the growing [[massively multiplayer online]] market, which presented the opportunity for continued revenues from subscription models and microtransactions instead of the revenue from a single sale. Around 2006, Kotick contacted [[Jean-Bernard Lévy]], the new CEO of [[Vivendi]], a French media conglomerate. Vivendi had a games division, [[Vivendi Games]], that was struggling to be viable at the time, but its principal feature was that it owned [[Blizzard Entertainment]] and its highly successful ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' game, which was drawing in {{USD|1.1 billion|long=no}} a year in subscription fees. Vivendi Games also owned [[Sierra Entertainment]].<ref name="forbes kotick" />

Lévy recognized Kotick wanted control of ''World of Warcraft'', and offered to allow the companies to merge, but only if Lévy held the majority shares in the merged group, forcing Kotick to cede control. Kotick fretted about this decision for a while, according to friends and investors. During this time in 2006–2007, some of Activision's former successful properties began to wane, such as ''Tony Hawk's'', so Activision bought [[RedOctane]], the publisher of the ''Guitar Hero'' franchise.<ref name="forbes kotick" /> Kotick met with Blizzard's president [[Mike Morhaime]], and learned that Blizzard also had a successful inroad into getting their games into China, a potentially lucrative market. Given this potential opportunity, Kotick agreed to the merger.<ref name="forbes kotick" />

Activision's board signed on to the merger by December 2007.<ref>{{cite news |title=Vivendi To Merge With Activision |url=https://www.forbes.com/2007/12/02/vivendi-computer-guitar-tech-media-cx_rr_1202activision.html |work=Forbes |access-date=August 22, 2012 |first=Rachel |last=Rosmarin |date=December 2, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620012647/http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/02/vivendi-computer-guitar-tech-media-cx_rr_1202activision.html |archive-date=June 20, 2013}}</ref> The merger was completed in July 2008. The new company was called [[Activision Blizzard]] and was headed by Kotick, while Vivendi maintained a 52% share in the company.<ref name="forbes kotick" /><ref>{{cite press release |title=Vivendi and Activision to create Activision Blizzard – World's Largest, Most Profitable Pure-Play Video Game Publisher |publisher=Activision, [[Vivendi]] |date=December 2, 2007 |url=https://www.activisionblizzard.com/pressReleases/pr120207.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409211320/http://www.activisionblizzard.com/pressReleases/pr120207.php |archive-date=April 9, 2008 |access-date=December 2, 2007}}</ref> The new company was estimated to be worth {{US$|18.9&nbsp;billion}}, ahead of [[Electronic Arts]], which was valued at {{US$|14.1&nbsp;billion}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/activision-vivendi-shake-games-biz-96314/ |title=Activision-Vivendi to Shake Up Games Biz |first=Georg |last=Szalai |date=July 8, 2008 |work=AdWeek |access-date=February 12, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054037/http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/activision-vivendi-shake-games-biz-96314 |archive-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref>