Vivendi to sell sierra and blizzard?

Dustaz

article here

The world's biggest media empire after AOL Time Warner has lost 73 percent of its market value this year on worries about its strategy and bloated debt. Former chairman Jean-Marie Messier, recently ousted in a boardroom coup, had considered the video games business a prime example of the synergies his media empire could achieve.

But his successor Fourtou does not agree the business is central to Vivendi's strategy, despite a 15 percent operating margin that makes it one of the most profitable in its sector, according to group publishing chief Agnes Touraine.

``Games are the icing on the cake. They are nice to have, but you do not lose any coherence if you sell them,'' the WSJ quoted one person familiar with Fourtou's view as saying. The WSJ quoted people close to the issue as saying that Fourtou had not yet made a formal decision over the video games branch and was still weighing other options.

However they added that he had identified the business, whose three studios together have annual turnover of $600 million, as non-core and expendable. Some analysts were skeptical over the two billion euro price tag on the video games business.

``The valuation appears a bit excessive, though it's true they have very nice studios.... with very nice games like ``Warcraft,'' ``Crash Bandicoot'' and licenses such as ``Lord of the Rings'' and ``Bruce Lee.'' But three times turnover is clearly more than the sector average of 1.5 times,'' one analyst said. ``One could reasonably envisage 2 billion euros but I would guess it would be more likely a bit more than 1 billion,'' added Sylvie Sejournet at Fortis Securities.

Will this have any impact on future realeases such as HL2, Warcraft 150, Tribes 3 etc etc etc?

Celt

*nm*

Shinji

The most likely purchasers for the business are Sega and Microsoft.

If it's Sega, then the impact will be interesting to watch - I suspect that a lot of the studios which currently aren't very efficent (like Sierra's studios in particular) will get a swift boot in the backside. Japanese games companies generally don't /do/ slippage. Sega wouldn't tolerate the kind of slippage and budget over-run seen in the likes of Tribes 2. You'd probably see an early bloodbath at the company followed by better, less buggy and more timely games, eventually.

If Microsoft buy them... expect a lot of games to slip and eventually show up on Xbox with at least a years exclusivity, a la Halo.

Wook

I am sure this guy will think about again after he has seen the sale of Blizzards WarcraftIII...

spooky donkey

Is warcraft 3 selling well, id imagine it is.

I wouldent say it would afect games to much, if some games like HL2 are in development i doubt they will be droped cause some other company buys them out, but as shinji says a japnees company getting them might be a good thing!

spooky donkey

Perhaps they will have a rething, i just read this on gamespot.....

Vivendi creates new studio

The new company will create and publish games for both PC and consoles.

Vivendi Universal Publishing has announced that it has created a new studio called Black Label Games, which will be responsible for developing and publishing games on the PC and multiple consoles. Black Label Games joins Vivendi's lineup of other studios, which includes Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra, and Universal Interactive. The first games that Black Label Games will publish include The Thing and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
"Black Label Games will target the rapidly growing audience for Teen- to Mature-rated games," said Ken Cron, CEO of Vivendi Universal Games. "Through Black Label, we will focus on delivering innovative, high-quality titles to satisfy the growing consumer appetite for increasingly sophisticated content."