After trying to shop around for potential buyers for Activision Blizzard, Vivendi has agreed to an $8.2-billion deal that will make Activision Blizzard an independent company with the majority of its shares held by the investing public. The deal, which was just formally announced, has Activision Blizzard and a group of investors led by the company’s management buying about 429 million of its shares and certain tax attributes from Vivendi for roughly $5.83 billion in cash, or $13.60 a share.

Robert Kotick, chief executive to Activision Blizzard and Brian Kelly, co-chairman, are leading a group in buying about 172-million shares of the company from Vivendi for around $2.34 billion. At the end of the day, Vivendi will have a stake of about 12 percent, or 83-million shares, while Kotick will continue to lead the company and Kelly will reprise the role of sole chairman.

Activision Blizard, which is the world’s largest video game publisher, sees the buyout as a “tremendous opportunity” Kotick said in a statement released to the press. Activision Blizzard is in charge of some of the world’s most popular game franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. OK, so it’s mostly Blizzard titles that are overwhelmingly popular, but Call of Duty does more than pull its own weight year after year.

“We should emerge even stronger,” Kotick said. “The transactions announced today will allow us to take advantage of attractive financing markets while still retaining more than $3 billion cash on hand to preserve financial stability.”

Source: Market Watch