Sard Verbinnen & Co is handling electronic gamer Activision Blizzard's $8.3B deal to wrestle majority control from France’s Vivendi.
AB CEO Bobby Kotick/co-chairman Brian Kelly and investors such as Chinese social network/online gaming portal operator Tencent, are funding the acquisition of the No. 1 independent publisher in the U.S. and Europe.
AB titles include "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," and "Skylanders Giants." Its "World of Warcraft" online franchise has more than 7.7M subscribers.
The independent AB will have $3B in cash. Vivendi will retain a 12 percent.
SV&C’s Stephanie Pillersdorf and Cassandra Bujarski are handling AB deal that is expected to be completed by the end of September.
Vivendi, meanwhile, is considering splitting its media/content units (Universal Music Group and pay-TV provider Canal Plus) from its telecom business to drive future growth.
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