Activision continues to be at the center of cost-cutting measures as Vivendi has decided to sell their $8.1 billion stake in the company.
According to Bloomdberg News, "[s]hould no buyer emerge for the 61 percent holding in the Santa Monica, California-based video-gam publisher, Paris-based Vivendi plans to sell shares in the market," according to a source.
This comes after yesterday's gutting of Radical Entertainment, the developers behind Prototype and its sequel, despite primarily positive reviews and good sales. But that's irrelevant when faced with the gigantic corporate picture of Activision and emerging online gaming versus traditional consoles. Bloomberg cites the period as "a transition phase for the video-game industry with the introduction of the first new consoles in seven years," according to an analyst. Because of that, it's definitely not a buyer's market, even with prime titles like Word of Warcraft and Call of Duty to be offered up.
But why is Activision suffering so much despite being attached to big names in console and PC gaming? Primarily Vivendi needs a major stock boost for their fiscal calendar and stock board. Activision's their biggest cash drain, at least financially, and would be an economic quick fix in sales for the short-term.
What's that mean for your run-of-the-mill CoD player? Nothing immediately, but it could halt development on anything past this Fall since Activision would lose financial secuirty and ability to pay for basic necessity like salary, utilities and upkeep. It's the sort of thing that came back to haunt 38 Studios when they shuffled their funds around to pretend to be functional.