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Activision shareholders are expected today to approve a merger with Vivendi Games in a deal that will shake up the gaming biz.
The deal, unveiled in December, valued the new Activision Blizzard at $18.9 billion - compared with Electronic Arts’ market capitalization, after Monday’s market close, of $14.1 billion, according to Yahoo Finance (via The Hollywood Reporter).
More telling is the fact that, while EA has been reporting losses, Activision Blizzard shows promise to be the most profitable gaming firm and to grow at a healthy pace.
“I don’t care about who is No. 1 and 2,” Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst said. “Earnings growth is what counts for investors.”
Activision Blizzard is brings together some of the hottest gaming franchises, such as Vivendi’s World of Warcraft and Activision’s Guitar Hero.
“What it does is create a truly global gaming company with reach in the U.S., Europe and Asia,” including in the fast-emerging Chinese market, Edward Williams, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, is quoted as saying in Adweek. “It also creates a company that drives revenue from multiple streams, including the massively [multiplayer] online game category that is seeing the biggest growth.”
Katz Media Group has added another new client, Lincoln Financial Media, and will sell ad time on the company’s 15 stations beginning immediately.
Katz also added CBS Radio and Entercom last week, picking them off from Interep’s list.
Katz has also…
Last week, Aegis Group CEO Robert Lerwill resigned unexpectedly, sparking speculation that a takeover may be on the horizon.
Lerwill stepped down officially today (Monday), with Aegis chairman John Napier taking over his duties on an interim basis, writes MediaPost. People…
Out-of-home companies are bracing for the recession like everyone else, but they may not feel the sting as badly as other media.
Though the third quarter brought negative growth to the nation’s three largest OOH companies - Clear Channel Outdoor,…
The 82nd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade pulled an average 12.6 rating/26 share on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 27, according to Nielsen.
That was 8% higher than its telecast last year, Mediaweek writes. NBC estimated that a total 44.7 million viewers…
Top American non-luxury auto brands received higher ratings and less negative comments from online consumers than competing Japanese brands, according to an analysis of consumer opinions collected from automotive review websites by Biz360, MarketingCharts reports.
The research, which aggregated a year’s…
Email, news gathering and paying bills continue to be the most widely used online activities among U.S. adults, but downloading TV programs, watching videos and making web phone calls posted the biggest overall growth, according to data from Mediamark Research…
