Activision Blizzard

What does Activision Blizzard own?
Activision Blizzard owns several major gaming franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft, Candy Crush Saga, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The company operates through three studios: Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, and King.

Is Activision Blizzard publicly traded?
No. Activision Blizzard was delisted from NASDAQ in October 2023 following its acquisition by Microsoft Corporation for $68.7 billion. The company previously traded under the ticker symbol ATVI. Investors seeking exposure to Activision Blizzard's business can do so through Microsoft Corporation, which trades on NASDAQ under MSFT.

Who founded Activision Blizzard?
Activision Blizzard was formed in 2008 through the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games. Activision was originally founded in 1979 by a group of Atari programmers. Blizzard Entertainment was founded in 1991 by Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce, and Allen Adham in Irvine, California.

Where is Activision Blizzard headquartered?
Activision Blizzard is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Blizzard Entertainment maintains its own campus in Irvine, California, and King is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with additional offices in London and Barcelona.

How many brands does Activision Blizzard own?
Activision Blizzard owns approximately 10 major gaming franchises, with Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and Candy Crush Saga being the most commercially significant. The company's strategy has historically emphasized deep investment in a small number of proven franchises rather than a large portfolio of titles.

Who owns Activision Blizzard?
Activision Blizzard is wholly owned by Microsoft Corporation, which acquired the company for $68.7 billion in October 2023. Within Microsoft, Activision Blizzard operates as part of Microsoft Gaming alongside Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks, under the leadership of Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

What is Activision Blizzard's revenue?
As an independent public company, Activision Blizzard reported $7.53 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2022, its last full year before the Microsoft acquisition. The company peaked at $8.8 billion in revenue in 2021. Following the acquisition, Activision Blizzard's results are consolidated into Microsoft's financial statements and are not separately disclosed.

What happened with the workplace culture lawsuits?
In July 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleging sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation. The company reached a $54 million settlement with the California Civil Rights Department in 2023. A separate EEOC investigation resulted in an $18 million settlement in 2021. The company denied wrongdoing in both settlements.

The history of Activision Blizzard requires understanding the separate histories of its two principal predecessor companies before their 2008 combination.

Activision was founded in 1979 in New York by a group of Atari programmers, including Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, Larry Kaplan, and David Crane, who left Atari to form the first independent video game developer. The company became the first third-party developer for the Atari 2600 and established the model of independent game development that the industry still follows. After near-bankruptcy in the late 1980s, the company was revived and renamed Mediagenic before returning to the Activision name in 1992 under new management.

Bobby Kotick, who would lead the company for three decades, became CEO of Activision in 1991 and transformed it into one of the world's largest game publishers through a series of acquisitions. Key acquisitions included Infinity Ward in 2003, the studio that would create the Call of Duty franchise, and Neversoft, Raven Software, and other studios that expanded the company's development capacity. The launch of Call of Duty in 2003 and its subsequent sequels, particularly Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007, established the franchise as one of the most commercially successful in gaming history.

Blizzard Entertainment was founded in 1991 in Irvine, California, by Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce, and Allen Adham as Silicon and Synapse, later renamed Chaos Studios and then Blizzard Entertainment. The company developed titles for other publishers before creating its own franchises, including Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in 1994, which launched one of gaming's most enduring universes. StarCraft in 1998 became a defining title for competitive gaming, particularly in South Korea. World of Warcraft, launched in 2004, became the most commercially successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game ever made, generating billions of dollars in subscription revenue over two decades. Blizzard was acquired by Vivendi in 1998 and became part of Vivendi Games.

The 2008 merger between Activision and Vivendi Games, which included Blizzard Entertainment, created Activision Blizzard for an implied value of approximately $18.9 billion. Vivendi received approximately 52% of the combined company's shares, while Activision shareholders retained the remainder. The deal combined Activision's console and PC publishing strength with Blizzard's subscription-based PC gaming business and created one of the world's largest game publishers.

In February 2016, Activision Blizzard acquired King Digital Entertainment, the maker of Candy Crush Saga, for $5.9 billion in cash. The acquisition transformed Activision Blizzard into a mobile gaming company with hundreds of millions of monthly active users and added a substantial recurring revenue stream from in-app purchases.

In July 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleging a pervasive culture of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation against female employees. The lawsuit triggered significant public attention, employee walkouts, and regulatory investigations. Bobby Kotick faced calls for his resignation from some shareholders and employees. The company reached a settlement with the California Civil Rights Department in 2023 for $54 million.

In January 2022, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash, or approximately $95 per share. The deal faced extensive regulatory scrutiny in the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sought to block the acquisition, arguing it would harm competition in the gaming market, but a federal judge denied the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction in July 2023. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority initially blocked the deal before approving a restructured version in October 2023. The acquisition closed on October 13, 2023.

Bobby Kotick remained as CEO of Activision Blizzard through the end of 2023 before departing. The company's studios now operate under Microsoft Gaming alongside Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks.