Kotick: Activision Could Have Bought Blizzard For $7 Million

In 2007, Activision merged with Vivendi Games to form Activision Blizzard. The deal was worth roughly $18 billion, which is a big chunk of change compared to another transaction that involved Blizzard back in 1995. President and CEO of the company, Bobby Kotick, has some interesting insight regarding how Activision’s history with Blizzard could have been very different.

In our exclusive interview with Kotick, he spoke of a dinner in 1995 with Davidson & Associates in which they mention they had purchased Blizzard for $7 million. What Kotick explained afterwards was his bewilderment at the high price tag for the burgeoning developer:

“That year Activision probably had 60 million in revenues. They said they paid seven million dollars for Blizzard. I’m like 'Are you out of your minds? They’re like a contract developer! They have Warcraft but what else do they have? You paid SEVEN million! That’s insane!

"I was talking to [Blizzard founder] Mike Morhaime the other day and I said, 'You know, I could have bought you for seven million and instead it was seven billion.' [Laughs]
He said, 'Yeah, could you imagine if I had just held out for the seven billion instead of the seven million?'”

It’s difficult to imagine what the gaming landscape would be like if Kotick had been the one acquiring Blizzard way back then, rather than Vivendi doing the buying.

Read the full Bobby Kotick interview in the February issue of Game Informer, available now.