Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has revealed that the gaming giant acquired Time Warner at some point. Activision is already a giant game publisher thanks to the fact that it owns Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Crash Bandicoot, and much more. Arguably it was a bit older in terms of the intellectual property it had at its disposal 15 years ago when it still had Spider-Man, James Bond, and many other IPs now in the hands of other publishers. Now, Activision could get a lot bigger as Microsoft plans to acquire it if it gets approved by all the necessary regulators. However, there was a time when Activision almost took a completely different path.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Revealed to Variety That the company has aspirations to acquire Time Warner at some point. Kotick noted that AT&T was already on the fence to close the deal, but because there were so many legal issues, there was a chance it would fall through. So, Activision gathered the necessary capital and plan to try and secure the company for itself. According to Kotick, the plan was to take advantage of the company’s various IPs (Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, etc.) and create new video games for them under Activision and then go on to turn Activision properties like Call of Duty into a movie. Activision was working on a Call of Duty movie at one point, but it never happened. Of course, if all this happened, Microsoft likely wouldn’t be in a position to acquire Activision.
It could potentially raise Activision’s value significantly and cause all kinds of regulatory concerns if Microsoft wants to push the money. With Activision already costing Microsoft nearly $70 billion should this deal go through, it’s hard to imagine that happening. As of now, the jury is still out on whether or not to let Microsoft swallow Activision.
What do you think Activision almost got a chance to acquire Time Warner? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on @Cade_Onder Twitter.
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