Activision Blizzard recently announced that the company will spend US$5.83 billion to repurchase stock from parent Vivendi. As a 6 per cent strategic stakeholder in Activision Blizzard, Chinese Tencent is also involved in the transaction.
Tencent and Activision Blizzard began their partnership early last year, although Blizzard Entertainment and Tencent competitor NetEase also cooperate actively in China. This relationship continues despite the Activision/Blizzard Entertainment merger in 2007, as the two companies still operate independently.
China’s Tencent, the world’s third largest Internet company behind Google and Amazon, also has stakes some of gaming’s other biggest companies, including League of Legends developer Riot Games (which Tencent acquired in 2011) as well as game and technology developer Epic Games (Tencent paid US$330 million for a 40 per cent stake in the company in 2012).
