Warcraft helps Vivendi games triple earnings

Division sales rise 6.7% during final quarter before Activision merger

By Danny King -- Video Business, 9/2/2008

SEPT. 2 | Vivendi's games unit's earnings tripled on continued growth of its World of Warcraft multi-player online-gaming franchise during the last full quarter before the company completed its merger with Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision, which will form the world's largest videogames publisher.

The Vivendi division's second-quarter operating income jumped to 42 million euros ($61 million) from 12 million euros ($17.4 million) a year earlier, as the unit's sales rose 6.7% to 223 million euros ($323.8 million), Paris-based Vivendi said in a statement yesterday. The parent company's net income for the quarter was little changed.

Vivendi's games unit completed its $9.85 billion acquisition of Activision, creating Activision Blizzard, in July, seven months after it was announced and three months after the European Union approved the transaction. The merger creates a publisher whose titles include Warcraft, the world’s biggest multi-player online game, and the Guitar Hero franchise. With annual revenue approaching $4 billion, Activision Blizzard unseated Electronic Arts as the world’s largest videogames publisher.

Warcraft, which has about 11 million active subscribers, makes up almost two-thirds of the worldwide multi-player online game market, according to Web site Mmogchart.com. During the first half of the year, Warcraft, the next version of which will be released by the end of the year, gained about 900,000 users, Vivendi said.