French media conglomerate Vivendi has earned $1.1 billion from the sale of its remaining stock in Activision Blizzard, roughly 5.7 percent of the company, to an unnamed buyer.
As part of the deal Vivendi will also reportedly recoup a $400 million cash deposit, meaning the French multinational has netted roughly $1.5 billion.
It seems like a pretty good deal for Vivendi, which sold roughly the same amount of Activision Blizzard stock in 2014 for an estimated $866 million. In a press release announcing the sale, a Vivendi representative stated that “the decision to implement these transactions was taken in view of the evolution of the Activision Blizzard stock price,” which has risen significantly in the last year.
For its part, Activision Blizzard now appears completely separated (at least financially) from its onetime parent company, which it spun off from in 2013 after becoming an independent company through a stock buyback.
Of course, Vivendi maintains an interest in the video game industry, most notably through its recent acquisition of notable stakes in French game companies Ubisoft and Gameloft.
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2016