Gamertell

The $18.8 billion deal to combine Activision and Vivendi Games will see the creation of a new company, Activision Blizzard, which is expected to be the world’s largest and most profitable pure-play video game publisher. Vivendi, which is going to be the majority stakeholder in the new company, has taken a major step towards the materialization of the deal. It has secured a loan of $5.13 billion to fund the acquisition.

The loan will not only be used to close Vivendi’s acquisition of Activision but also that of Neuf Cegetel, a French telecommunication firm. The syndicated loan has been fully underwritten by a pool of banks lead by Societe Generale, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Fortis Bank. Around $2.1 billion dollars of the loan amount is a bridging loan, while the remaining $3 billion is a revolver loan.

It seems that the deal will be closed by mid-2008 as originally planned and very soon Activision Blizzard will be a new force to reckon with in the video games industry. Vivendi Games and Activision had originally announced the merger on December 2, 2007.

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