Kotaku
Trying to combine two companies into one successful partnership that all sides are happy with is hard work - and the Activision Blizzard merger was no exception. Papers filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) detail the process - the preliminary proxy statement is really, really massive, but does contain some interesting details about how the merger came to be (and almost wasn't on multiple occasions).
it was revealed that Activision and Vivendi management actually got together to discuss a possible merger as far back as November 2006. It wasn't until April and May of last year that talks really heated up, however ....After going back and forth over certain transaction terms, in June Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi called up Activision head Bobby Kotick "to advise him that, due to the meaningful differences between the two companies' proposals and lack of any apparent progress, he did not think it made sense to continue discussions concerning a possible transaction at that time."
And this goes on and on until we wind up with the announcement that had me reaching for another cup of coffee in December. "The Transaction" section is interesting to page through, if only to get a closer look at how these seemingly out of the blue business transactions come into being.
The Activision Blizzard Deal That Almost Wasn't [GameDaily]
