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Vivendi selling 61 percent stake in Activision Blizzard worth $8.1 billion

May go to open market

pandaria
pandaria

Vivendi is attempting to sell off 61 percent of shares in Activision Blizzard.

Media bigwig Vivendi is looking to sell 61 percent of its stake in publisher Activision Blizzard, valued at $8.1 billion.

As reported by Bloomberg, if the firm fails to find a buyer for the stake, Vivendi will sell some of its shares in the company on the open market.

Despite Activision's successes with the Call of Duty series and World of Warcraft, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter believes Vivendi will have difficulty finding buyers.

"The problem is there are no readily apparent buyers for Activision," Pachter told Bloomberg. "The only option left to Vivendi is to lever up Activision's balance sheet and pay out all of its cash as a dividend, then spin the company off."

In 2007, Vivendi announced a merger worth $18.9 billion between its games group and Activision.

Vivendi is currently attempting to restructure and boost its stock price after a nine-year low.

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