144-530: Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California . Activision Blizzard currently includes five business units: Activision Publishing , Blizzard Entertainment , King , Major League Gaming , and Activision Blizzard Studios . Founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi Games ,
288-434: A Fortune 500 company with over one thousand employees. In February 1982, Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin' Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple, where the latter served as Director of Product Marketing, and allowed Hawkins to use Sequoia Capital's spare office space to start the company. Trip Hawkins incorporated and established
432-476: A $ 30,000 grant to use in their veteran job placement activities. The goal of CODE is to help 100,000 US and UK veterans find high-quality jobs by 2024. The endowment helps soldiers transition to civilian careers after their military service by funding nonprofit organizations and raising awareness of the value veterans bring to the workplace. Worlds, Inc. was issued several United States patents around 2009 related to "System and method for enabling users to interact in
576-506: A 24.4% stake in the company overall. In addition, Kotick remained the president and CEO, with Brian Kelly taking over as chairman . On October 12, 2013, shortly after approval from the Delaware Supreme Court , the company completed the buyback, along the lines of the original plan. Vivendi sold half its remaining stake on May 22, 2014, reducing its ownership to 5.8%. and completely exited two years later. Activision Blizzard released
720-463: A Stanford MBA classmate, Jeff Burton from Atari for international business development. The business plan was again refined in September and reissued on October 8, 1982. By November, the employee headcount rose to 11, including Tim Mott, Bing Gordon , David Maynard, and Steve Hayes. Having outgrown the office space provided by Sequoia Capital, the company relocated to a San Mateo office that overlooked
864-507: A bigger company, albeit with Viacom as the potential bidder. In May 2008, EA announced that it would purchase the assets of Hands-On Mobile Korea, a South Korean mobile game developer and publisher. The company became EA Mobile Korea. In September 2008, EA dropped its buyout offer of Take-Two. No reason was given. As of November 6, 2008, it was confirmed that Electronic Arts is closing their Casual Label & merging it with their Hasbro partnership with The Sims Label. EA also confirmed
1008-539: A black & white animation tool called Studio/1, and a series of Paint titles called Studio/8 and Studio/32 (1990). Relationships between Electronic Arts and their external developers often became difficult when the latter missed deadlines or diverged from the former's creative directions. In 1987, EA released Skate or Die! , their first internally developed game. EA continued publishing their external developers' games while experimenting with their internal development strategy. This led to EA's decision of purchasing out
1152-417: A conference call with reporters, stated that their poor performance in the fourth quarter was not due entirely to the poor economy, but also to the fact that they did not release any blockbuster titles in the quarter. In the quarter ending December 31, 2008, the company lost US$ 641 million . On February 2, 2009, Ludlum Entertainment had signed a deal with Electronic Arts to grant exclusive rights to bring
1296-426: A countersuit against the two, accusing the pair of being "self-serving schemers". Activision later sought to add Electronic Arts to their suit, discovering that Zampella and West had been in discussions with them while still working for Activision, and further added claims against Zampella and West that the two had not returned all material related to Call of Duty while they were working at Respawn. A separate lawsuit
1440-461: A direct competitor to Valve 's Steam and Epic Games ' Store . EA also owns and operates major gaming studios such as DICE , Motive Studio , BioWare , and Respawn Entertainment . Trip Hawkins had been an Apple Inc. employee since 1978, at a time when the firm had only about fifty employees. Over the next four years, the market for home personal computers skyrocketed. By 1982, Apple had completed its initial public offering (IPO) and become
1584-722: A final deal that would have had NBCUniversal spun out from Comcast before bringing EA within it. Amazon was also mentioned as a possible customer for EA; CNBC reported in late August that Amazon was no longer interested in a takeover. In January 2023, EA cancelled development on Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile, leading to the shutdown of developer Industrial Toys . On February 28, 2023, EA eliminated 200 QA testers from its Baton Rouge, Louisiana office. The testers predominantly worked on Respawn Entertainment 's Apex Legends battle royale game. On March 29, EA announced it would lay off 6% of its workforce, or 775 employees. In June 2023, EA announced an internal reorganization of
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#17328486092701728-493: A gradual increase in stock value. In July 2015, Electronic Arts reached an all-time high with a stock value of US$ 71.63, surpassing the previous February 2005 record of $ 68.12. This is also up 54% from $ 46.57 in early January 2015. The surge was partly attributed to EA's then-highly anticipated Star Wars Battlefront reboot, which released one month before Star Wars: The Force Awakens , also highly anticipated. During E3 2015 , EA vice-president Patrick Söderlund announced that
1872-531: A group that will complement their objectives." This statement comes a week after EA announced it was laying off 6% about 600 of their staff positions and had a US$ 310 million net loss for the quarter. Due to the 2008 economic crisis , Electronic Arts had a poorer than expected 2008 holiday season, moving it in February 2009 to cut approximately 1,100 jobs, which it said represented about 11% of its workforce. It also closed 12 of their facilities. Riccitiello, in
2016-555: A licensing agreement to develop and release EA's titles, like John Madden Football , FIFA International Soccer , Shaq Fu , Jungle Strike and Urban Strike for various consoles. In 1995, Electronic Arts won the European Computer Trade Show award for best software publisher of the year. As the company was still expanding, they opted to purchase space in Redwood Shores, California in 1995 for construction of
2160-536: A lower quality of the 3DO's software library as a backfiring of its liberal license policy, it fell further behind and lost competition. Electronic Arts dropped its support for 3DO in favor of the PlayStation, 3DO's production ceased in 1996 and, for the remainder of the company's lifetime, 3DO developed video games for other consoles and the IBM PC until it folded in 2003. In 1994, Electronic Arts and THQ signed
2304-520: A mistake, often stripping smaller studios of its creative talent. Riccitiello said that the city-state model allows independent developers to remain autonomous to a large extent, and cited Maxis and BioWare as examples of studios thriving under the new structure. During 2007, EA announced that it would be bringing some of its major titles to the Mac . EA also released Battlefield 2142 , Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars , Crysis , Harry Potter and
2448-531: A multi-year pact to broadcast Madden NFL competitive matches across the world through its Competitive Gaming Division arm. On August 14, 2018, Patrick Söderlund announced his departure from EA as its vice-president and chief design officer, after serving twelve years with the company. With Söderlund's departure, the SEED group was moved as part of EA's studios, while the EA Originals and EA Partners teams were moved under
2592-459: A new Sims and Casual Label, where there is a deep compatibility in the product design, marketing and demographics. ... In the days and weeks ahead, we will make further announcements on the reporting structure for the other businesses in the Casual Label including EA Mobile, Pogo, Media Sales and Online Casual Initiatives. Those businesses remain growth priorities for EA and deserve strong support in
2736-568: A new company and keeps majority shares with itself, and invites other companies to buy minority shares, it is called a parent company. A parent company could simply be a company that wholly owns another company, which is then known as a " wholly owned subsidiary ". Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. ( EA ) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California . Founded in May 1982 by former Apple employee Trip Hawkins ,
2880-487: A new headquarters, which was completed in 1998. Early in 1997, Next Generation identified Electronic Arts as the only company to regularly profit from video games over the past five years, and noted it had "a critical track record second to none". In 1999, EA replaced their long-running Shapes logo with one based on the EA Sports logo used at the time. EA also started to use a brand-specific structure around this time, with
3024-547: A new packaged version of Crysis 2 that included all the downloadable content without the storefront features, EA did not publish any additional games on Steam until 2019, instead selling all personal computer versions of games through Origin. In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired PopCap Games , the company behind games such as Plants vs. Zombies , Peggle and Bejeweled . EA continued its shift toward digital goods in 2012, folding its mobile-focused EA Interactive (EAi) division "into other organizations throughout
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#17328486092703168-414: A new title, Destiny , on September 9, 2014. The game made over $ 500 million in retail sales on the first day of release, setting a record for the biggest first day launch of a new gaming franchise. On November 5, 2013, the company released Call of Duty: Ghosts , which was written by screenwriter Stephen Gaghan . On its first release day the game sold $ 1 billion into retail. In 2014, Activision Blizzard
3312-607: A number of release records. As of March 2018, it was the largest game company in the Americas and Europe in terms of revenue and market capitalization. The company has also been involved in multiple notable controversies, including allegations of infringed patents and unpaid royalties. In late July 2021, it was sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing on allegations of sexual harassment and employee discrimination. The suit triggered an investigation by
3456-513: A parent company material influence if they are the largest individual shareholder or if they are placed in control of the running of the operation by non-operational shareholders.) In the United Kingdom, the term holding company is defined by the Companies Act 2006 at section 1159. It defines a holding company as a company that holds a majority of the voting rights in another company, or
3600-521: A partnership in which EA becomes an exclusive major supplier of mobile games to Nokia mobile devices through the Nokia Content Discoverer. In the beginning, Nokia customers were able to download seven EA titles ( Tetris , Tetris Mania , The Sims 2 , Doom , FIFA 06 , Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 and FIFA Street 2 ) on the holiday season in 2006. Rick Simonson is the executive vice-president and director of Nokia and starting from 2006
3744-530: A prior two-year deal with Twitch for the Overwatch League had concluded. The deal with YouTube was estimated to be valued at US$ 160 million , double what it had with Twitch. Since 2009, when Kotick launched Call of Duty Endowment (CODE), over 50,000 veterans have been placed in high-quality jobs. In 2013 CODE started the "Seal of Distinction" program, which recognizes non-profit organizations that are successful in placing veterans in good jobs. Winners receive
3888-664: A remaining 14.8% stake in it in 2010. Since June 2023, the company is organized in two main divisions: EA Entertainment Technology & Central Development (EA Entertainment for short, formerly EA Games) and EA Sports. First introduced in 1991 as the Electronic Arts Sports Network, before being renamed due to a trademark dispute with ESPN, EA Sports publishes all the sports games from EA, including FC , Madden NFL , Fight Night , NBA Live , NCAA Football , Cricket , NCAA March Madness , Tiger Woods PGA Tour , NHL , NASCAR and Rugby . FIFA
4032-584: A separate patent infringement lawsuit in October 2013, asserting that Worlds, Inc. was using two Activision-owned patents in its Worlds Player software, but this suit was dismissed with prejudice by June 2014. In Worlds, Inc. case against Activision, the judge issued a summary judgement in Activision's favor, as they had demonstrated that Worlds, Inc. had demonstrated the technologies of their patents in their client programs AlphaWorld and World Chat , released before
4176-469: A series of companies they identify as successful, as well as the decision to release annualized franchises to cut budget costs. Because of Trip Hawkins' obsession of simulating a sports game, he signed a contract with football coach John Madden that led to EA's developing and releasing annual Madden NFL games. In 1988, EA published a flight simulator game exclusively for Amiga, F/A-18 Interceptor , with filled-polygon graphics that were advanced for
4320-557: A subsidiary of EA. Wilson stated that "the franchises in our combined portfolio will enable us to create innovative new experiences and bring more players into the excitement of cars and motorsport". In January 2021, Disney announced it had revived the Lucasfilm Games label for its licensed video game properties and announced new games including a new Star Wars game that would be developed by Ubisoft aimed for release in 2023, indicating that EA's ten-year exclusive license in 2013 to
4464-517: A takeover bid for rival game company Take-Two Interactive . After its initial offer of US$ 25 per share, all cash stock transaction offer was rejected by the Take-Two board, EA revised it to US$ 26 per share, a 64% premium over the previous day's closing price and made the offer known to the public. Rumours had been floating around the Internet prior to the offer about Take-Two possibly being bought over by
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4608-738: A virtual space", which generally described a method of server/client communications for multiplayer video games, where players would communicate through avatars . In early 2009, Worlds, Inc. stated its intent to challenge publishers and developers of MMOs, naming Activision as one of its intended targets. Worlds, Inc. had already challenged NCSoft for its MMOs in 2008. The companies ultimately settled out of court by 2010. Worlds, Inc. launched its formal lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, including both Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Publishing, in March 2012, stating that Call of Duty and World of Warcraft infringed on their patents. Activision Publishing filed
4752-499: Is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own stock of other companies to form a corporate group . In some jurisdictions around the world, holding companies are called parent companies , which, besides holding stock in other companies, can conduct trade and other business activities themselves. Holding companies reduce risk for
4896-469: Is a discounted series of EA Sports. In 2011, Forbes ranked EA Sports eighth on their list of most valuable sports brands, with a value of $ 625 million . EA All Play is a mobile-oriented label that, since 2012, publishes digital titles like The Simpsons ' , Tetris , and Battlefield , as well as Hasbro board games like Scrabble . The EA Competitive Gaming Division (CGD), founded in 2015 by Peter Moore and currently headed by Todd Sitrin,
5040-624: Is a member of another company and has the right to appoint or remove a majority of its board of directors, or is a member of another company and controls alone, pursuant to an agreement with other members, a majority of the voting rights in that company. After the financial crisis of 2007–2008 , many U.S. investment banks converted to holding companies. According to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council 's website, JPMorgan Chase , Bank of America , Citigroup , Wells Fargo , and Goldman Sachs were
5184-492: Is a subsidiary of Microsoft Gaming along with Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media . The original Activision company was founded in 1979, as a third-party developer for games on the Atari Video Computer System . In 1988 the company expanded into non-gaming software and renamed itself Mediagenic. This venture was not successful, incurring heavy losses. In 1991 a group of investors led by Bobby Kotick bought
5328-632: Is affiliated with John Riccitiello and are partners. In February 2007, Probst stepped down from the CEO job while remaining on the board of directors. His handpicked successor is John Riccitiello , who had worked at EA for several years previously, departed for a while, and then returned. Riccitiello previously worked for Elevation Partners , Sara Lee and PepsiCo . In June 2007, new CEO John Riccitiello announced that EA would reorganize itself into four labels, each with responsibility for its own product development and publishing (the city-state model). The goal of
5472-471: Is defined by Part 1, Section 5, Subsection 1 of the Companies Act, which states: 5.—(1) For the purposes of this Act, a corporation shall, subject to subsection (3), be deemed to be a subsidiary of another corporation, if — In the United Kingdom, is generally held that an organisation holding a 'controlling stake' in a company (a holding of over 51% of the stock) is in effect the de facto parent company of
5616-528: Is due to its strategy of platform-agnostic development and the creation of strong multi-year franchises. EA was the first publisher to release yearly updates of its sports franchises— Madden , FIFA , NHL , NBA Live , Tiger Woods , etc.—with updated player rosters and small graphical and gameplay tweaks. Recognizing the risk of franchise fatigue among consumers, EA announced in 2006 that it would concentrate more of its effort on creating new original intellectual property. In September 2006, Nokia and EA announced
5760-517: Is located in Stockholm and Vancouver . EA announced the closure of Visceral Games in October 2017. Prior, Visceral had been supporting EA's other games but was also working on a Star Wars title named Project Ragtag since EA's acquisition of the Star Wars license, even hiring Amy Hennig to direct the project. While EA did not formally give a reason for the closure, industry pundits believed that EA
5904-535: Is re-reviewing the IPRs in consideration of the Federal Circuit's ruling. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2021, when a US district court ruled that "Worlds' patents were abstract ideas that were not sufficiently transformative to be legally patentable." In early 2010, Activision fired Vince Zampella and Jason West, two of the founders of its studio Infinity Ward , on the basis of "breaches of contract and insubordination";
Activision Blizzard - Misplaced Pages Continue
6048-624: Is the group dedicated on enabling global eSports competitions on EA's biggest franchises including FIFA , Madden NFL , Battlefield and more. The Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division (SEED) was revealed at the 2017 Electronic Entertainment Expo as a technology research division and incubator, using tools like deep learning and neural networks to bring in player experiences and other external factors to help them develop more immersive narratives and games. SEED has offices in Los Angeles and Stockholm. EA Partners co-publishing program
6192-588: The James Bond property, DreamWorks Interactive , and eventually DICE ; in the latter two cases, these studios were acquired by EA as part of the EA DICE family. In 2003, EA's president John Riccitiello pushed for a renaming of the EA Distribution label, seeing the potential to bring in more independent developers and additional revenue streams. While they rebranded the label as EA Partners in 2003, Riccitiello left EA
6336-556: The CEO of the French media conglomerate Vivendi . Vivendi at that time had the games division Vivendi Games , a holding company principally for Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment . Kotick wanted to get access to Blizzard's World of Warcraft , a successful MMO, and suggested a means to acquire this to Lévy. Lévy instead offered that he would be willing to merge Vivendi Games with Activision, but only if Vivendi kept majority control of
6480-542: The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a suit alleging sexual harassment , employment discrimination and retaliation on the part of Activision Blizzard. A second lawsuit was filed against the company by its shareholders asserting it falsified knowledge of these problems in their financial statements, though this suit was dismissed due to failure to meet thresholds for claims, The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had also filed suit against Activision-Blizzard from their own investigation of
6624-529: The Game Workers Alliance (GWA) with the support of Campaign to Organize Digital Employees-CWA and voted to unionize with a count of 19 – 2 in favor. The National Labor Relations Board recognized GWA as a union. Following the Raven Software's successful unionization, the 20-member QA team of Blizzard Albany announced a unionization drive in July 2022 as GWA Albany. The vote passed (14–0), forming
6768-607: The NCAA , EA announced in February 2021 that it was returning to college sports with a planned EA Sports College Football title to likely be released in 2023. The company announced its plans to extend its mobile commitment in February 2021 by acquiring Glu Mobile in an deal estimated worth $ 2.1 billion . The acquisition was completed by the end of April 2021. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia acquired 7.4 million shares of EA, valued at $ 1.1 billion , in February 2021. Former CEO and current chairman Probst stated in May 2021 he
6912-581: The PlayStation 2 launch title X-Squad . The second; Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., would publish Square's titles in North America. The venture was described as a success by Square, as it allowed the company to release more of their titles in the North American market. In February 2003, with the preparation of Square and Enix's merger into Square Enix ; both partnerships were announced to be dissolved at
7056-597: The San Francisco Airport landing path. When he incorporated the company, Hawkins originally chose Amazin' Software as their company name, but his other early employees of the company universally disliked the name; as a result, the company changed its name to Electronic Arts in November 1982. He scheduled an off-site meeting in the Pajaro Dunes , where the company once held such off-site meetings. Hawkins had developed
7200-445: The Star Wars property was likely not extended. EA still maintained a non-exclusive license to Star Wars games, affirming more titles would be coming following this announcement. As of February 2021, EA's Star Wars games had sold more than 52 million copies and brought in more than $ 3 billion in revenue. After a six-year absence from producing college sports-based game due to legal issues related to student athlete likenesses with
7344-401: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission , multiple workplace walkouts , the resignation or dismissal of several employees, the loss of multiple company event sponsors, and hundreds of workplace harassment allegations. Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard for $ 68.7 billion on January 18, 2022. The acquisition was completed on October 13, 2023. Activision Blizzard
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#17328486092707488-476: The broadcast licenses to reflect this, resulting in stations that are (for example) still licensed to Jacor and Citicasters , effectively making them such as subsidiary companies of their owner iHeartMedia . This is sometimes done on a per- market basis. For example, in Atlanta both WNNX and later WWWQ are licensed to "WNNX LiCo, Inc." (LiCo meaning "license company"), both owned by Susquehanna Radio (which
7632-442: The shareholders , and can permit the ownership and control of a number of different companies. The New York Times uses the term parent holding company . Holding companies can be subsidiaries in a tiered structure . Holding companies are also created to hold assets such as intellectual property or trade secrets , that are protected from the operating company. That creates a smaller risk when it comes to litigation . In
7776-579: The "toys to life" category. On September 15, 2015, Activision and Bungie released Destiny: The Taken King , the follow-up to the Destiny saga. Two days later, Sony announced that the game broke the record for the most downloaded day-one game in PlayStation history, in terms of both total players and peak online concurrency. Activision Blizzard acquired social gaming company King , creator of casual game Candy Crush Saga , for $ 5.9 billion in November 2015. In November 2015, Activision Blizzard announced
7920-489: The 1995 priority date, though this was related to filing irregularities that were subsequently corrected by the Patent Office. Activision did not challenge the updated patents through an inter partes review (IPR), and subsequently after a statutory one-year waiting period, Worlds, Inc. filed a subsequently lawsuit against Activision, asserting Call of Duty: Ghosts violated their resolved patents. Later, Worlds, Inc. stated
8064-705: The 2004 holiday season, EA responded by making several large sports licensing deals which include an exclusive agreement with the NFL , and in January 2005, a 15-year deal with ESPN . The ESPN deal gave EA exclusive first rights to all ESPN content for sports simulation games. On April 11, 2005, EA announced a similar, 6-year licensing deal with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) for exclusive rights to college football content. Much of EA's success, both in terms of sales and with regards to its stock market valuation,
8208-579: The 21st century, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including Battlefield , Need for Speed , The Sims , Medal of Honor , Command & Conquer , Dead Space , Mass Effect , Dragon Age , Army of Two , Apex Legends , and Star Wars , as well as the EA Sports titles FC , FIFA , Madden NFL , NBA Live , NHL , PGA , and UFC . Since 2022, their desktop titles appear on self-developed EA App , an online gaming digital distribution platform for PCs and
8352-677: The Amiga will blow your socks off. We think the Amiga, with its incomparable power, sound and graphics, will give Electronic Arts and the entire industry a very bright future. –Trip Hawkins, 1985 Amiga advertisement In the mid-1980s, Electronic Arts aggressively marketed products for the Amiga , a home computer introduced in 1985. Commodore had given EA development tools and prototype machines before Amiga's actual launch. For Amiga EA published some notable non-game titles. A drawing program Deluxe Paint (1985) and its subsequent versions became perhaps
8496-527: The Bungie IPRs that portions of Worlds, Inc. patents were invalid. Worlds, Inc. appealed to the Federal Circuit Appeals Court , challenging the validity of the IPRs due to the lack of Activision's involvement. The Federal Circuit court ruled in favor of Worlds, Inc. in September 2018, invalidating the Patent Office's decision. Worlds, Inc.'s case presently remains at the Patent Office stage, which
8640-543: The November 2019 release of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order , as well as bringing the EA Access subscription service to Steam. While EA plans to continue to sell games on Origin, the move to add Steam releases was to help get more consumers to see their offerings. Due to COVID-19 lockdowns and growing demand for online games, EA's revenue grew to $ 1.4bn in the first quarter of 2020. EA rebranded both EA Access and Origin to EA Play on August 18, 2020, but otherwise without changing
8784-620: The Order of the Phoenix , Madden NFL 08 , Need for Speed: Carbon , and Spore for the Mac. All of the new games have been developed for the Macintosh using Cider, a technology developed by TransGaming that enables Intel -based Macs to run Windows games inside a translation layer running on Mac OS X. They are not playable on PowerPC-based Macs. In February 2008, it was revealed that Electronic Arts had made
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#17328486092708928-515: The Sand . However, a number of Sierra's games such as Crash Bandicoot , Spyro , and Prototype were retained and are now published by Activision. In early 2010, the independent studio Bungie entered into a 10-year publishing agreement with Activision Blizzard. By the end of 2010, Activision Blizzard was the largest video games publisher in the world. The 2011 release of Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 grossed $ 400 million in
9072-541: The U.S., five in the United Kingdom, six in Continental Europe , and eight elsewhere. The majority of these companies and studios are now defunct , with some having been merged into other entities. Of the six companies which EA purchased a stake in, two remaining companies are based in the U.S., while three other U.S. companies are defunct. After acquiring a 19.9% stake in France-based Ubisoft in 2004, EA sold
9216-545: The US and UK alone in its first 24 hours, making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time. It was also the third consecutive year the Call of Duty series broke the biggest launch record; 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops grossed $ 360 million on day one; and 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 brought in $ 310 million. Call of Duty: Black Ops III grossed $ 550 million in worldwide sales during its opening weekend in 2015, making it
9360-606: The United States' Federal Trade Commission and the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority have challenged the merger as anticompetitive and have initiated legal procedures in their respective countries. To resolve these issues, Microsoft agreed to give rights to cloud gaming of Activision Blizzard's games to Ubisoft , which was cleared by regulators. The acquisition was completed on October 13, 2023. The last time Activision Blizzard reported their annual financial results for its shareholders before Microsoft acquired them
9504-446: The United States, 80% of stock, in voting and value, must be owned before tax consolidation benefits such as tax-free dividends can be claimed. That is, if Company A owns 80% or more of the stock of Company B, Company A will not pay taxes on dividends paid by Company B to its stockholders, as the payment of dividends from B to A is essentially transferring cash within a single enterprise. Any other shareholders of Company B will pay
9648-437: The acquisition was intended to bolster Activision Blizzard's push into esports, as well as its plan to develop an esports cable channel . Reports indicated that MLG would be shuttered and that the majority of the purchase price would go towards paying off the company's debt. Activision Blizzard acquired MLG on January 4, 2016 for $ 46 million. In November 2016, Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, announced
9792-628: The biggest entertainment launch of the year. In 2011, Activision Blizzard debuted its Skylanders franchise, which led to the press crediting the company with inventing and popularizing a new toys-to-life category. The first release Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure was nominated for two Toy Industry Association awards in 2011: "Game of the Year" and "Innovative Toy of the Year". Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure and its sequels were released for major consoles and PC, and many were released on mobile devices as well. On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced
9936-516: The cancellation of a first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe, and that the company would be moving away from licensed IP in favor of EA-owned franchises. In July 2024, actor labor union Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which also has numerous video game voice actors as members, would initiate a labor strike against a number of video publisher, including EA, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections not only video game actors, but also
10080-483: The company as chief marketing officer (CMO). The company also announced in April 2021 that Kotick will remain CEO through April 2023, through Kotick agreed to take a 50% cut of his pay, equal to $ 875,000 . Kotick will remain eligible to receive annual bonuses, and while he agreed to reduce his target bonus by 50% as well, he potentially can earn up to 200% of his base pay based on the company's performance. On July 20, 2021,
10224-456: The company had seen a record year in revenue, they would be laying off around 775 people or around 8% of their workforce in non-management divisions, "de-prioritizing initiatives that are not meeting expectations and reducing certain non-development and administrative-related costs across the business", according to Kotick. Kotick stated that they plan to put more resources towards their development teams and focus on esports, Battle.net services, and
10368-508: The company leveraged to leapfrog its early competitors. Promoting its developers was a trademark of EA's early days. Games were sold in square packages modeled after album covers (such as those for 1983's M.U.L.E. and Pinball Construction Set ). Hawkins thought the packaging would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling. EA routinely referred to their developers as "artists" and gave them photo credits in their games and full-page magazine ads. Their first such ad, accompanied by
10512-693: The company owns and operates additional subsidiary studios, as part of Activision Publishing, including Treyarch , Infinity Ward , and High Moon Studios . Among major intellectual properties produced by Activision Blizzard are Call of Duty , Crash Bandicoot , Guitar Hero , Skylanders , Spyro , Tony Hawk's , Diablo , Hearthstone , Heroes of the Storm , Overwatch , StarCraft , World of Warcraft , and Candy Crush Saga . Under Blizzard Entertainment, it invested in esports initiatives around several of its games, most notably Overwatch and Call of Duty . Activision Blizzard's titles have broken
10656-504: The company said that current CFO and COO Blake Jorgensen would be stepping down by mid-2022. The company's COO role was taken over by Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele , while a search for a new CFO was launched. Longtime Microsoft executive Chris Suh was later appointed as CFO in March 2022. Industry reports around May 2022 asserted that EA had been looking to be acquired by larger media firms, including Disney, Apple, and Comcast / NBCUniversal . These reports said that EA had been nearing
10800-481: The company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die! The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991. Into
10944-606: The company with a personal investment of an estimated US$ 200,000 on May 27, 1982. For more than seven months, Hawkins refined his Electronic Arts business plan . With aid from his first employee (with whom he worked in marketing at Apple), Rich Melmon, the original plan was written, mostly by Hawkins, on an Apple II in Sequoia Capital's office in August 1982. During that time, Hawkins also employed two of his former staff from Apple, Dave Evans and Pat Marriott, as producers , and
11088-567: The company would start investing more on smaller titles such as Unravel so as to broaden the company's portfolio. On December 10, 2015, EA announced a new division called Competitive Gaming Division, which focuses on creating competitive game experience and organizing ESports events. It was once headed by Peter Moore . In May 2016, Electronic Arts announced that they had formed a new internal division called Frostbite Labs. The new department specializes in creating new projects for virtual reality platforms, and "virtual humans". The new department
11232-457: The company's Strategic Growth group. On February 6, 2019, Electronic Arts' stock value was hit by a decline of 13.3%, the worst decline since Halloween 2008. This was largely due to the marketing of their anticipated title Battlefield V , which was released after the holiday season of October 2018. Stocks were already declining since late August, when EA announced that Battlefield V ' s release would be delayed until November. Upon release,
11376-433: The company's chief marketing officer. On August 23, EA announced it was eliminating 50 roles at BioWare , or 20% of its workforce. A group of former employees later sued EA, seeking better severance following their layoffs. In December 2023, EA laid off an unknown number of Codemasters employees. In February 2024, EA announced that it would lay off 670 employees, or 5% of its global workforce. The cuts came with
11520-460: The company's properties. Activision Blizzard Distribution provides logistical support for Activision Blizzard's distribution within Europe. Activision Blizzard owns the Call of Duty and StarCraft franchises, both of which have been popular as esports . On October 21, 2015, Activision Blizzard announced the upcoming establishment of a new esports division. Named Activision Blizzard Media Networks,
11664-452: The company, specifically those divisions led by EA Labels president Frank Gibeau, COO Peter Moore, and CTO Rajat Taneja, and EVP of digital Kristian Segerstrale." On March 18, 2013, John Riccitiello announced that he would be stepping down as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors on March 30, 2013. Larry Probst was also appointed executive chairman on the same day. Andrew Wilson was named as
11808-499: The company. In June 2011, EA launched Origin , an online service to sell downloadable games for personal computers directly to consumers. Around this time, Valve , which runs Steam in direct competition with Origin, announced changes to storefront policy disallowing games that used in-game purchases that were not tied to Steam's purchasing process, and removed several of EA's games, including Crysis 2 , Dragon Age II , and Alice: Madness Returns in 2012. Although it released
11952-525: The company. CEO Andrew Wilson announced a realignment of the company into two organizations – EA Sports and EA Entertainment – both of which would report directly to him, having Laura Miele, previously Chief Studios Officer and COO, as the president of EA Entertainment, and Cam Weber, formerly EVP and group General Manager of EA Sports as president of EA Sports. Vince Zampella , Samantha Ryan, and Jeff Karp continued on EA Entertainment, leading and overseeing specific studios under EA Entertainment. Also announced in
12096-475: The company. Kotick instituted a large restructuring to reduce debt, including renaming the company back to Activision and moving it to Santa Monica, California. By 1997 the company was profitable again. Kotick spent the next decade expanding Activision's products through acquisitions of around 25 studios. This resulted in Activision publishing several successful series of games, including Tony Hawk's , Call of Duty , and Guitar Hero . However, by around 2006,
12240-526: The costs of these elements in anticipation of the game's full November 2017 launch, but they were reportedly told by Disney to disable all microtransactions until they could come up with a fairer monetization scheme. By March 2018, EA had developed a fairer system that eliminated the pay to win elements and drastically reduced costs for unlocking characters. The controversy over Battlefront II 's loot boxes led to an 8.5% drop in stock value in one month—about $ 3.1 billion and impacted EA's financial results for
12384-515: The data to public forums and threatening to release more if their demands were not met. EA acquired mobile game developer Playdemic Studios in Manchester, England from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in June 2021 for $ 1.4 billion , following the merger of Discovery, Inc. with WarnerMedia . As of June 2021, the acquisition was expected to complete by 2022. In their SEC filings in September 2021,
12528-600: The deal closed the next day for an estimated transaction amount of US$ 18.9 billion. Vivendi became the combined company's majority shareholder at 54% of outstanding shares, equating to 52% if shares were to be fully diluted. The rest of the shares were held by institutional and private investors, and were to be left open for trading on the NASDAQ stock market for a time under the ticker symbol ATVID, and subsequently as ATVI (Activision's stock ticker). At this point, Lévy replaced René Penisson as chairman of Activision Blizzard. The merger
12672-523: The deal did not include those properties, so Cut the Rope became published by ZeptoLab , and Angry Birds became published by Rovio Entertainment . On May 4, 2011, EA reported $ 3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2011, and on January 13, 2012, EA announced that it had exceeded $ 1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year. In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this "an incredibly important milestone" for
12816-634: The departure of Kathy Vrabeck, who was given the position as former president of the EA Casual Division in May 2007. EA made this statement about the merger: "We've learned a lot about casual entertainment in the past two years, and found that casual gaming defies a single genre and demographic. With the retirement and departure of Kathy Vrabeck, EA is reorganizing to integrate casual games—development and marketing—into other divisions of our business. We are merging our Casual Studios, Hasbro partnership, and Casual marketing organization with The Sims Label to be
12960-411: The division is led by sports executive Steve Bornstein and Major League Gaming (MLG) co-founder Mike Sepso , with assets from the acquisition of the now defunct IGN Pro League . Bornstein was appointed the new division's chairman. On December 31, 2015, it was reported that "substantially all" of Major League Gaming's assets would be acquired by Activision Blizzard. The New York Times reported that
13104-859: The end of March with each partner buying the other's shares. Electronic Arts Square was renamed as Electronic Arts K.K. and began self-publishing EA's titles in Japan from then on while Square Electronic Arts was folded under Square Enix's North American operations. In 2004, EA made a multimillion-dollar donation to fund the development of game production curriculum at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division . On February 1, 2006, Electronic Arts announced that it would cut worldwide staff by 5 percent. On June 20, 2006, EA purchased Mythic Entertainment , who are finished making Warhammer Online . After Sega's ESPN NFL 2K5 successfully grabbed market share away from EA's dominant Madden NFL series during
13248-399: The end of May 2012. All settlements were made for undisclosed amounts. In May 2024, families affected by the 2022 Uvalde school shooting filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, alongside Meta and the gun manufacturer. The suit against Activision Blizzard alleged that they promoted specific brands of guns to teens through Call of Duty . Holding company A holding company
13392-416: The end of its financial quarter ending March 31, 2019, Wilson announced they were cutting about 350 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce, primarily from their marketing, publishing, and operations divisions. Wilson stated the layoffs were necessary to "address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead". EA announced in October 2019 that it would be returning to release games on Steam, starting with
13536-419: The film company United Artists , Steve Hayes opposed, saying, "We're not the artists, they [the developers] are..." This statement from Hayes immediately tilted sentiment towards Electronic Arts and the name was unanimously endorsed and adopted later in 1982. He recruited his original employees from Apple, Atari, Xerox PARC, and VisiCorp, and got Steve Wozniak to agree to sit on the board of directors. Hawkins
13680-431: The firm, having overriding material influence over the held company's operations, even if no formal full takeover has been enacted. Once a full takeover or purchase is enacted, the held company is seen to have ceased to operate as an independent entity but to have become a tending subsidiary of the purchasing company, which, in turn, becomes the parent company of the subsidiary. (A holding below 50% could be sufficient to give
13824-458: The first body) is a subsidiary of another body corporate if, and only if: Toronto-based lawyer Michael Finley has stated, "The emerging trend that has seen international plaintiffs permitted to proceed with claims against Canadian parent companies for the allegedly wrongful activity of their foreign subsidiaries means that the corporate veil is no longer a silver bullet to the heart of a plaintiff's case." The parent subsidiary company relationship
13968-605: The five largest bank holding companies in the finance sector, as of December 2013 , based on total assets. The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 caused many energy companies to divest their subsidiary businesses. Between 1938 and 1958 the number of holding companies declined from 216 to 18. An energy law passed in 2005 removed the 1935 requirements, and has led to mergers and holding company formation among power marketing and power brokering companies. In US broadcasting , many major media conglomerates have purchased smaller broadcasters outright, but have not changed
14112-420: The following quarters. Furthermore, the visibility of this controversy led to debate at government levels around the world to determine if loot boxes were a form of gambling and if they should be regulated. In January 2018, EA announced eMLS, a new competitive league for EA Sports' FIFA 18 through its Competitive Gaming Division (CGD) and MLS . That same month, EA teamed up with ESPN and Disney XD in
14256-455: The following requirements are met: A parent company is a company that owns enough voting power in another firm (or subsidiary ) to control management and operations by influencing or electing its board of directors . The definition of a parent company differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, with the definition normally being defined by way of laws dealing with companies in that jurisdiction. When an existing company establishes
14400-580: The formation of Activision Blizzard Studios , a film production arm that would produce films and television series based on Activision Blizzard's franchises. The outfit is co-headed by producer Stacey Sher and former The Walt Disney Company executive Nick van Dyk. In June 2017, Activision Blizzard joined the Fortune 500 becoming the third gaming company in history to make the list after Atari and Electronic Arts . In its 2018 fiscal year earnings call to shareholders in February 2019, Kotick stated that while
14544-493: The game was met with a mixed reception, and EA sold one million fewer copies than their expected figure of 7.3 million. Also attributed to the stock plunge was the game's lack of the game mode Battle Royale , popularized by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and then Fortnite . Stocks then surged 9.6% with the surprise release of Apex Legends , which garnered 25 million players in just one week, smashing Fortnite ' s record of 10 million players in two weeks. In advance of
14688-439: The ideas of treating software as an art form and calling the developers "software artists". Hence, the latest version of the business plan suggested the name "SoftArt". Hawkins and Melmon knew the founders of Software Arts , the creators of VisiCalc , and thought their permission should be obtained. Dan Bricklin did not want the name used because it sounded too similar (perhaps " confusingly similar ") to Software Arts ; however,
14832-513: The intent to add Bungie to the lawsuit contending that Destiny also fell afoul of their patents. Bungie subsequently filed three IPRs with the Patent Office for each of the three Worlds, Inc. patents at the core of the lawsuit. While Bungie initially won its IPR ruling at the USPTO, on appeal in September 2018, Worlds, Inc. won a ruling questioning whether Bungie had legal standing to file its IPRs. The new Worlds, Inc. case against Activision Blizzard
14976-545: The launch of Overwatch League , a professional video gaming league. The league's first season began during the second half of 2017 with 12 teams. The league's structure is based on traditional sports structures, including recruiting traditional sports executives as team owners, such as Robert Kraft , owner of the New England Patriots , and Jeff Wilpon , COO of the New York Mets . The inaugural Overwatch Grand Finals
15120-403: The main publishing side of the company rebranding to EA Games. The EA Sports brand was retained for major sports titles, the new EA Sports Big label would be used for casual sports titles with an arcade twist, and the full Electronic Arts name would be used for co-published and distributed titles. EA began to move toward direct distribution of digital games and services with the acquisition of
15264-519: The merged company. According to those close to Kotick, Kotick was concerned about this offer as it would force him to cede control of Activision. However, after talking to Blizzard's CEO Mike Morhaime , Kotick recognized that Vivendi would be able to give them inroads into the growing video game market in China. Kotick proposed the merger to Activision's board, which agreed to it in December 2007. The new company
15408-662: The most famous piece of software available for Amiga platform. In addition, EA's Jerry Morrison conceived the idea of a file format that could store images, animations, sounds, and documents simultaneously, and would be compatible with third-party software. He wrote and released to the public the Interchange File Format , which soon became an Amiga standard. Other Amiga programs released by EA included Deluxe Music Construction Set , Instant Music and Deluxe Paint Animation . Some of them, most notably Deluxe Paint , were ported to other platforms. For Macintosh EA released
15552-413: The move caused several other Infinity Ward staff to resign. Zampella and West created a new studio, Respawn Entertainment , with help from Electronic Arts ' partner program, hiring the majority of those that departed Infinity Ward in their wake. Zampella and West filed a lawsuit in April 2010 against Activision, claiming unpaid royalties on the studio's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 . Activision filed
15696-475: The name concept was liked by all the attendees. Hawkins had also recently read a bestselling book about the film studio United Artists and liked the reputation that the company had created. Hawkins said everyone had a vote, but they would lose it if they went to sleep. Hawkins liked the word "electronic", and various employees had considered the phrases "Electronic Artists" and "Electronic Arts". When Gordon and others pushed for "Electronic Artists", in tribute to
15840-1165: The new CEO of EA by September 2013. In April 2013, EA announced a reorganization which was to include dismissal of 10% of their workforce, consolidation of marketing functions which were distributed among the five label organizations, and subsumption of Origin operational leadership under the President of Labels. EA acquired the lucrative exclusive license to develop games within the Star Wars universe from Disney in May 2013, shortly after Disney's closure of its internal LucasArts game development in 2013. EA secured its license from 2013 through 2023, and began to assign new Star Wars projects across several of its internal studios, including BioWare , DICE , Visceral Games , Motive Studios , Capital Games and external developer Respawn Entertainment . In April 2015, EA announced that it would be shutting down various free-to-play games in July of that year, including Battlefield Heroes , Battlefield Play4Free , Need for Speed: World , and FIFA World . The reorganization and revised marketing strategy lead to
15984-477: The new entity. By fall 2012, both Muzyka and Zeschuk had chosen to depart the merged entity in a joint retirement announcement. On November 9, 2009, EA announced layoffs of 1,500 employees, representing 17% of its workforce, across a number of studios including EA Tiburon, Visceral Games , Mythic and EA Black Box . Also affected were "projects and support activities" that, according to Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown "don't make economic sense", resulting in
16128-461: The office full time in 2024. ABK Workers Alliance accused the company of forcing out employees with this decision. On March 8, 2024, 600 QA testers at 3 Activision studios in Austin, Eden Prairie, and El Segundo formed the union "Activision Quality Assurance United-CWA" and voted to unionize (390–8) in favor, making it the largest video game union in the United States. Microsoft voluntarily recognized
16272-581: The popular online gaming site Pogo.com in 2001. In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup Playfish . In December 1997, Electronic Arts ended their Japanese publishing joint-venture with Victor Entertainment , entitled Electronic Arts Victor , and purchased out Victor's 35% stake in the venture. On May 1, 1998, Electronic Arts announced the formation of two joint-ventures with Square . The first; Electronic Arts Square K.K., would publish Electronic Arts' titles in Japan and also developed
16416-504: The popularity of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games started to grow. Such games provide a constant revenue stream to their publishers, rather than only a single purchase, making them a more valuable proposition. None of Activision's subsidiaries had an MMO or the capability to make one quickly. Activision was also facing tougher competition from companies like Electronic Arts , as well as slowdowns in sales of their key game series. Around 2006, Kotick reached out to Jean-Bernard Lévy ,
16560-655: The publisher's core games which include Candy Crush , Call of Duty , Overwatch , Warcraft , Diablo , and Hearthstone . Prior to this, Activision Blizzard and Bungie agreed to terminate their distribution deal with Destiny 2 as it was not bringing in expected revenue for Activision, with Bungie otherwise retaining all rights to Destiny . This transaction allowed Activision Blizzard to report US$ 164 million as part of its 2018 fiscal year filings. The company announced that Daniel Alegre would replace Coddy Johnson as president of Activision Blizzard effective April 7, 2020, with Johnson transitioning to special advisory role. During
16704-399: The purchase of 429 million shares from owner Vivendi for $ 5.83 billion, dropping the shareholder from a 63% stake to 11.8% by the end of the deal in September. At the conclusion of the deal, Vivendi was no longer Activision Blizzard's parent company, and Activision Blizzard became an independent company as a majority of the shares became owned by the public. Bobby Kotick and Brian Kelly retained
16848-491: The reorganization was to empower the labels to operate more autonomously, streamline decision-making, increase creativity and quality, and get games into the market faster. This reorganization came after years of consolidation and acquisition by EA of smaller studios, which some in the industry blamed for a decrease in quality of EA titles. In 2008, at the DICE Summit, Riccitiello called the earlier approach of "buy and assimilate"
16992-447: The same day, CFO Chris Suh and chief experience officer Chris Bruzzo would be leaving the company at the end of the month, with the first leaving for another company while the other going to retire. In place of Suh as CFO came Stuart Canfield, a 20-year veteran of the company who had most recently been serving as SVP of enterprise finance and investor relations, while the company's new chief experiences officer became David Tinson, previously
17136-625: The second quarter of 2020, the company's net revenues from digital channels reached $ 1.44bn due to the growing demand for online games driven by COVID-19 lockdowns. By January 2021, the company's net value was estimated to be $ 72 billion based on its stock trading price due to the ongoing demand for video games from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia acquired 14.9 million shares of Activision Blizzard, valued at $ 1.4 billion , in February 2021. In April 2021, Fernando Machado, former Brazilian executive at Burger King , joined
17280-462: The second union at an Activision Blizzard subsidiary. In February 2023, Activision Blizzard announced to employees that it would end its full-time remote policy starting between April and June that year. On November 30, quality assurance staffers were told that the company would end its hybrid work model and bring employees in Austin, Texas , Eden Prairie, Minnesota and El Segundo, California back to
17424-465: The shutdown of popular communities such as Battlefield News and the EA Community Team. These layoffs also led to the complete shutdown of Pandemic Studios . In October 2010, EA announced the acquisition of England-based iPhone and iPad games publisher Chillingo for US$ 20 million in cash. Chillingo published the popular Angry Birds for iOS and Cut the Rope for all platforms, but
17568-440: The slogan "We see farther," was the first video game advertisement to feature software designers. EA shared lavish profits with their developers, which added to their industry appeal. The Amiga will revolutionize the home computer industry. It's the first home machine that has everything you want and need for all the major uses of a home computer, including entertainment, education and productivity. The software we're developing for
17712-409: The subscription price or services offered as part of a streamlining effort. In December 2020, EA placed a bid to buy Codemasters , a British developer of racing games, in a deal worth $ 1.2 billion, outbidding an earlier offer placed by Take-Two Interactive . The acquisition, agreed to by Codemasters, was completed by February 18, 2021, with all shares of Codemasters transferred to Codex Games Limited,
17856-521: The third-largest gaming company in the world and the largest headquartered in the Americas, behind Chinese company Tencent and the Japanese conglomerate Sony . Activision Blizzard's shareholders approved of the acquisition near-unanimously in April 2022. While the deal has been approved by several countries ahead of the planned October 18, 2023, deal closure, including the European Union and China, both
18000-564: The time. Another significant Amiga release (also initially available for Atari ST, later converted for other platforms) was Populous (1989) developed by Bullfrog Productions . It was a pioneering title in the genre that was later called " god games ". In 1990, Electronic Arts began producing console games for the Nintendo Entertainment System , after previously licensing its computer games to other console-game publishers. In 1991, Trip Hawkins stepped down as EA's CEO and
18144-461: The union. On July 24, 2024, 500 artists, designers, engineers, producers, and quality assurance testers who work on World of Warcraft also voted to unionize. Activision Blizzard is divided into three key business segments: There are also two non-reporting segments within Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard Studios oversees the production of film and television entertainment based on
18288-445: The use of A.I to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness. Since 1983 and the 1987 release of its Skate or Die! , Electronic Arts has respectively published and developed games, bundles, as well as a handful of earlier productivity software. As of April 2021, Electronic Arts' largest acquisition is the purchase of Glu Mobile , for $ 2.4 billion. Of the 39 companies acquired by EA, 20 are based in
18432-491: The usual taxes on dividends, as they are legitimate and ordinary dividends to these shareholders. Sometimes, a company intended to be a pure holding company identifies itself as such by adding "Holding" or "Holdings" to its name. The parent company–subsidiary company relationship is defined by Part 1.2, Division 6, Section 46 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) , which states: A body corporate (in this section called
18576-426: The work of Robert Ludlum into video gaming. As of early May 2009, the subsidiary studio EA Redwood Shores was known as Visceral Games. On June 24, 2009, EA announced it would merge two of its development studios, BioWare and Mythic into one single role-playing video game and MMO development powerhouse. The move placed Mythic under control of BioWare as Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk went in direct control of
18720-715: The workplace conditions but the company had settled the same day it was filed, which included setting aside an $ 18 million relief fund for affected employees. Ultimately, the DFEH and Activision Blizzard agreed to a $ 54 million settlement in December 2023 to cover pay and promotion inequities at the company, both agreeing there was no substantial evidence of widespread harassment. On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced that it would be acquiring Activision Blizzard for $ 68.7 billion in an all-cash deal, or approximately $ 95 per share. Activision Blizzard's stock price jumped nearly 40% that day in pre-market trading. The deal would make Microsoft
18864-508: Was completed on July 9. While Blizzard retained its autonomy and corporate leadership in the merger, other Vivendi Games divisions such as Sierra ceased operation. With the merger, Kotick was quoted stating if a Sierra product did not meet Activision's requirements, they "won't likely be retained." Some of these games ultimately were published by other studios, including Ghostbusters: The Video Game , Brütal Legend , The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena , and 50 Cent: Blood on
19008-758: Was concerned about the principally single-player game which would be difficult to monetize, as well as the slow pace of development. EA's original approach to the microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront II sparked an industry-wide debate on the use of random-content loot boxes . While other games had used loot boxes, EA's original approach within Battlefront II from its early October 2017 launch included using such mechanics for pay to win gameplay elements, as well as locking various Star Wars characters behind expensive paywalls, leading several gaming journalists and players to complain. EA modified some of
19152-407: Was dedicated to publishing and distributing games developed by third-party developers. EA Partners began as EA Distribution, formed in 1997 and led by Tom Frisina, a former executive from Accolade and Three-Sixty who helped both companies find third-party developers as to provide publishing support for them. Frisina's early partners included Looking Glass Studios , MGM Interactive for the rights to
19296-451: Was determined to sell directly to buyers. Combined with the fact that Hawkins was pioneering new game brands, this made sales growth more challenging. Retailers wanted to buy known brands from existing distribution partners. Former CEO Larry Probst arrived as VP of Sales in late 1984 and helped expand the already successful company. This policy of dealing directly with retailers gave EA higher margins and better market awareness, key advantages
19440-484: Was filed against Activision in April 2010 by several current and former members of Infinity Ward on the same basis of lack of unpaid royalties. All parties came to an undisclosed settlement to end all suits by May 2012. Electronic Arts and Activision had settled separately on Activision's charges of poaching employees, while the suits between Activision, Zampella, West, and the Infinity Ward employee group were settled by
19584-453: Was heard on October 3, 2014. With Bungie's IPRs pending at the Patent Office, the judge put the trial on hold pending the outcome of the IPRs. Worlds, Inc. challenged the IPRs at the Patent Office, as they did not include Activision as an interested party, a requirement that would have been necessary given the publisher/developer relationship between Activision and Bungie. The Patent Office did not accept this argument, and subsequently agreed with
19728-460: Was intended to appeal to the PC market. Electronic Arts was The 3DO Company's primary partner in sponsoring their console, showcasing on it their latest games. With a retail price of US$ 700 (equivalent to $ 1,476.43 in 2023) compared to its competitors' $ 100, the console lagged in sales, and with the 1995 arrival to North America of Sony's PlayStation , a cheaper and more powerful alternative, combined with
19872-465: Was later sold to Cumulus Media ). In determining caps to prevent excessive concentration of media ownership , all of these are attributed to the parent company, as are leased stations , as a matter of broadcast regulation . In the United States, a personal holding company is defined in section 542 of the Internal Revenue Code . A corporation is a personal holding company if both of
20016-484: Was on February 6, 2023. Activision Blizzard reported $ 7.54 billion in revenue and $ 1.52 billion in net income. As part of the acquisition deal, Kotick announced his resignation as CEO the same day, along with other high level executives, though Kotick will remain onboard through the end of 2023 to help with the transition. Bobby Kotick departed Activision Blizzard on December 29, 2023. In May 2022, QA testers of Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software went public as
20160-797: Was played at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in July 2018 and attracted 10.8 million viewers worldwide. The league hopes to have 18 teams competing during the second season in 2019, with the ultimate goal of 28 teams across the world. In 2018, Activision Blizzard signed a multi-year deal with The Walt Disney Company to stream Overwatch League games on both ESPN and Disney XD cable channels. The company also secured an exclusive multi-year deal with Google to stream all subsequent Activision Blizzard esports events, including Call of Duty and Overwatch events, through YouTube , and to use Google's cloud services for its game hosting infrastructure; this came after
20304-553: Was retiring from the company. Current EA CEO Wilson took over as chairman. In June 2021, EA confirmed that they had suffered a data breach, with game and engine source code taken from their servers, including the source for the Frostbite Engine and FIFA 21 ; EA assured no player or user data had been obtained. Hackers that had taken the code had started selling it around on the dark web . The perpetuators of this breach began to extort EA for money in July, releasing small portions of
20448-407: Was succeeded by Larry Probst. Hawkins went on to found the now-defunct 3DO Company , but still remained EA's chair until July 1994. In October 1993, 3DO developed the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer , which at the time was the most powerful game console. Once a critic of game consoles, Hawkins had conceived a console that unlike its competitors would not require a first-party license to be marketed, and
20592-533: Was the fifth largest gaming company by revenue worldwide, with total assets of US$ 14.746 billion and total equity estimated at US$ 7.513 billion. Activision Blizzard joined the S&;P 500 stock index on August 28, 2015, becoming one of only two companies on the list related to gaming, alongside Electronic Arts . The company released the next iteration of the Skylanders franchise in September 2015, which added vehicles to
20736-505: Was to be named Activision Blizzard and would retain its central headquarters in California. Bobby Kotick of Activision was announced as the new president and CEO, while René Penisson of Vivendi was appointed chairman . The European Commission permitted the merger to take place in April 2008, approving that there weren't any EU antitrust issues in the merger deal. On July 8, 2008, Activision announced that stockholders had agreed to merge, and
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