Our CEO, Danny Hammett was a SVP at Vivendi. Acti
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Our CEO, Danny Hammett was a SVP at Vivendi.
Activision Blizzard in a $8.2 billion deal aims to buy back the majority stake in the company from Vivendi, which Activision merged with five years ago.
Activision Blizzard has nearly bought out Vivendi, the company it merged with five years ago, and is now an independent video game publisher.
In a transaction announced early Friday, just after midnight ET, the Call of Duty publisher announced that it will buy back about 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion.
In another transaction, ASAC II LP, a new investment vehicle led by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and co-chairman Brian Kelly, will buy about 172 million shares from Vivendi for about $2.34 billion in cash.
Following the close of these two transactions, Vivendi will retain about 12% of Activision Blizzard and will no longer be the majority shareholder. The purchases are expected to be completed by the end of September.
Shares of Activision surged 20% to $17.98 in pre-market trading.
Danny Hammett as Senior Vice President of Value Line Publishing for North America. In his new role, Mr. Hammett will oversee product development, sales, marketing and business development efforts for VU Games' newly created value line business, which will mine the company's deep library of more than 700 PC and console titles, as well as introduce a new slate of interactive products for the mass market.
Mr. Hammett will report to Philip W. O'Neil, VU Games' President, North America. "The value line business in North America is a profitable and growing category which well exceeded $1 billion in PC and console sales in 2004," said Mr. O'Neil. "Danny has a proven track record in creating successful value line strategies and we are thrilled to have him on-board leading VU Games' efforts in this area." Mr. Hammett has held numerous senior level executive positions in the interactive entertainment industry. He founded Head Games Publishing in 1994, focusing on outdoor leisure action games and the value line business segment. In 1997, Mr. Hammett sold the company to Activision and was appointed Senior Vice President of Publishing for Head Games Publishing. He later was named Executive Vice President of Activision and President of Activision Value Publishing where he built the company's value line business unit to more than $100 million in annual revenues. VU Games' value line products will be priced competitively at $29.99 for console games and $19.99 and below for PC games. 
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