Activision Blizzard Merger To Leave Blizz Team Intact, Independent

The newly-merged Activision Blizzard may be planning to cut redundant staffers in areas where there's overlap with Activision and Vivendi, but the company plans to leave the Blizzard team untouched.

Activision Blizzard CFO Thomas Tippl told MCV that it'd largely be business as usual for Blizzard. "It’s not like we need to go there and fix something," he said. "Blizzard will continue to operate as they have done in the past – fairly independently."

"It would be a big mistake for us to distract them with new ideas."

However, Tippl did mention to MCV one new use the company has in mind for Blizzard:

Activision Blizzard Merger Official

Activision has officially received shareholder approval for its merger with Vivendi. The company said over 92 percent of its shareholders greenlighted the merger, and the transaction is expected to officially close tomorrow.

The merger was first announced in December of 2007, but has just now been finalized. Through it, Blizzard and Sierra parent Vivendi becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision, scoring 295.3 new shares of Activision stock. It'll also buy 62.9 million new shares for a total of $1.7 billion - the result is that Vivendi owns a stake of about 52 percent in its new parent company.

Santa Monica-based Activision's new name will officially be Activision Blizzard, a moniker change also approved by the shareholders today, but it'll continue to trade on the NASDAQ under its same symbol, ATVI.

Full details after the jump.

Activision Blizzard - World's Most Valuable Video Game Company

Now that Activision and Blizzard have a set a July date for their merger to be put up to final shareholder vote, it's time for the game industry analysts to do what they do best - analyzing. Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian doesn't just think the joining of the two will form a big game company...he says they'll be the best, at least from a financial point of view.

"We believe the transaction is set to create a formidable new digital media powerhouse and the most valuable interactive entertainment company worldwide, unlocking the value of industry juggernaut World of Warcraft, and possibly also setting a new benchmark for profit margins among publicly traded video game pure-plays"

Along with the rosy outlook, Sebastian is raising the company's target price (the price at which buyers will purchase the stock) from $33 to $40.

Activision Blizzard formation set for July 8 [GamesIndustry.biz]

EU Gives Blizzard Activision Its Blessing

Today the European Commission granted French telecom and media group Vivendi permission to merge its videogame unit with Activision, thus bringing to fruition the merger first announced back in December. The Commission had to be sure that the joining of the two companies wouldn't cause a monopoly in the marketplace. They could have just asked us, but no, they had to be all official.

The Commission said for "all categories of game software, the combined firm would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft".

EU approves Vivendi-Activision deal [Reuters - Thanks Thibaud!]

The Take-Two Letters: EA Rejected

The Activision Blizzard Merger That Nearly Wasn't

Vivendi Games and Activision Merge to Create Activision Blizzard [Update]

Mythic Co-Founder on EA Merger