as nasdaq atvi nasdaq 100 component s & p 500 component industry computer and video games interactive entertainment founded 2008 ; 8 years ago 2008 as activision inc. headquarters santa monica california u.s. area served worldwide key people brian kelly chairman mike griffith vice chairman bobby kotick president and ceo products activision call of duty series destiny guitar hero series skylanders series tony hawk s series blizzard entertainment diablo series heroes of the storm overwatch starcraft series warcraft series king digital candy crush saga revenue 4.664 billion 2015 operating income 1.319 billion 2015 net income 892 million 2015 total assets 15.251 billion 2015 total equity 8.068 billion 2015 number of employees 9 000 may 2016 1 divisions activision blizzard entertainment activision blizzard studios media networks king digital entertainment website www.activisionblizzard.com footnotes references 2 3 4 activision blizzard inc. is one of the largest interactive gaming and entertainment companies in the world . 5 headquartered in santa monica california and founded in 2008 6 through the merger of vivendi games 7 and activision the company is traded on the s & p 500 6 and nasdaq under the ticker symbol nasdaq atvi . 8 activision blizzard currently includes five business units 9 activision blizzard entertainment major league gaming 10 activision blizzard studios 11 12 and king digital entertainment . 13 the company owns and operates additional studios under an independent studios model including treyarch infinity ward and toys for bob 9 and its titles have broken a number of release records . 14 call of duty black ops iii grossed 550 million in worldwide sales during its opening weekend in 2015 making it the biggest entertainment launch of the year . 15 16 the company s franchises also include call of duty 17 destiny 18 skylanders 19 blizzard entertainment s world of warcraft starcraft 9 diablo hearthstone heroes of warcraft and overwatch sierra entertainment s king s quest space quest police quest and swat leisure suit larry and the legend of spyro and king s candy crush saga pet rescue saga and farm heroes saga . 13 contents 1 history 1.1 merger into activision blizzard 2007 08 1.2 new titles and sales records 2009 12 1.3 split from vivendi and growth 2013 14 1.4 s & p 500 and new divisions 2015 16 2 products 3 game studios 4 legal 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit merger into activision blizzard 2007 08 edit activision blizzard s headquarters in santa monica california united states . the building also serves as headquarters for its division activision . in december 2007 activision announced that the company and its assets would merge with fellow games developer and publisher vivendi games . at the time vivendi was best known as the holding company for the game studios sierra entertainment and blizzard entertainment . the new company 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 ren penisson of vivendi was appointed chairman . 20 the european commission permitted the merger to take place in april 2008 approving that there weren t any antitrust issues in the merger deal . 21 on july 8 2008 activision announced that stockholders had agreed to merge and the deal closed the next day for an estimated transaction amount of us 18.9 billion . 22 vivendi was the majority shareholder with a 52 % stake in the company . 22 23 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 nasdaq atvid and subsequently as nasdaq atvi . at this point jean bernard levy replaced ren penisson as chairman of activision blizzard . 8 the merger made activision blizzard the parent company of vivendi games former divisions . 24 while blizzard retained its autonomy and corporate leadership in the merger other vivendi games divisions such as sierra ceased operation . 25 with the merger kotick was quoted stating if a sierra product did not meet activision s requirements they won t likely be retained . 25 however a number of sierra s games such as crash bandicoot spyro the dragon and prototype were retained and are now published by activision . 26 new titles and sales records 2009 12 edit activision blizzard does not publish games under its central name and instead uses its studios to publish games . 27 in early 2010 the independent studio bungie entered into a 10 year publishing agreement with activision blizzard . 28 29 by the end of 2010 activision blizzard was the largest video games publisher in the world . 30 the 2011 release of activision blizzard s call of duty modern warfare 3 grossed 400 million in the us and uk alone in its first 24 hours making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time . 17 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 . 14 call of duty black ops iii grossed 550 million in worldwide sales during its opening weekend in 2015 making it the biggest entertainment launch of the year . 15 16 in 2011 activision blizzard debuted its skylanders franchise 19 which led to the press crediting the company with inventing and popularizing a new toys to life category . 19 31 32 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 . 33 skylanders spyro s adventure and its sequels were released for major consoles and pc and many were released on mobile devices as well . 19 split from vivendi and growth 2013 14 edit activision blizzard at gamescon 2013 where the company exhibited 2013 titles such as call of duty ghosts and skylanders swap force . on july 25 2013 activision blizzard announced 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 . 34 at the conclusion of the deal vivendi was no longer activision blizzard s parent company 35 and activision blizzard became an independent company as a majority of the shares became owned by the public . bobby kotick and brian kelly retained a 24.4 % stake in the company overall . in addition kotick remained the president and ceo with brian kelly taking over as chairman . 34 on october 12 2013 shortly after approval from the delaware supreme court the company completed the buyback along the lines of the original plan . 36 vivendi sold half its remaining stake on may 22 2014 reducing its ownership to 5.8 % . 37 activision blizzard released 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 . 18 on november 5 2013 the company released call of duty ghosts which was written by screenwriter stephen gaghan . 38 on its first release day the game sold 1 billion into retail . 18 in 2014 activision blizzard was the fifth largest gaming company by revenue worldwide 39 with total assets of us 14.746 billion and total equity estimated at us 7.513 billion . 3 s & p 500 and new divisions 2015 16 edit activision blizzard joined the s & p 500 on august 28 2015 becoming one of only three companies on the list related to gaming alongside microsoft and electronic arts . 6 the company released the next iteration of the skylanders franchise in september 2015 which added vehicles to the toys to life category . 40 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 . 41 activision blizzard announced on november 2 2015 that it would acquire social gaming company king creator of the popular casual game candy crush saga for 5.9 billion . 13 at an investor day presentation on november 6 2015 in the wake of the warcraft feature film activision blizzard announced the formation of activision blizzard studios a film production division dedicated to creating original television series and films . headed by producer stacey sher and former the walt disney company executive nick van dyk activision blizzard studios would look to produce an animated television series based on skylanders called skylanders academy and films based on the call of duty franchise 12 and partner with legendary pictures on possible sequels to the warcraft movie . activision blizzard owns the call of duty and starcraft franchises both of which have been popular as esports . 10 42 on october 21 2015 activision blizzard announced the upcoming establishment of a new e sports division . 11 named activision blizzard media networks 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 . 10 42 on december 31 2015 it was reported that substantially all of major league gaming s assets would be acquired by activision blizzard . 10 42 the new york times reported that the acquisition was intended to bolster activision blizzard s push into e sports as well as its plan to develop an e sports cable channel . 43 reports indicated that mlg would be shuttered and that the majority of the purchase price would go towards paying off the company s debt . 10 42 activision blizzard acquired mlg on january 4 2016 43 for 46 million . 10 42 products edit list of activision games list of blizzard entertainment games list of sierra entertainment video games game studios edit see also list of vivendi games divisions list of sierra ent . studios and list of activision studios incomplete list of studios that have been owned or operated by activision blizzard studio name headquarters founded notes current status activision santa monica california 1979 oct 1 merged with vivendi games on july 9 2008 . active activision blizzard media networks 2015 oct formed as an activision blizzard division in october 2015 utilized assets and staff from the acquisition of ign pro league . active activision blizzard studios united states 2015 nov announced as a film production division on november 6 2015 . 12 active beachhead studios santa monica california 2011 feb founded and wholly owned by activision 44 team originally built call of duty elite . 45 active beenox quebec city quebec canada 2000 may acquired on may 25 2005 . active blizzard entertainment irvine california 1991 feb founded as silicon & synapse acquired in 1998 by vivendi merged with activision on july 9 2008 . active demonware dublin ireland vancouver canada 2003 acquired in may 2007 . active freestylegames leamington spa united kingdom 2002 acquired on september 12 2008 . active high moon studios san diego california 2001 apr founded as sammy corporation acquired by vivendi games in january 2006 . active infinity ward encino los angeles 2002 acquired in october 2003 . active king digital entertainment stockholm sweden 2003 aug. acquired by activision blizzard for 5.9 billion on february 23 2016 . 46 active major league gaming new york city 2002 acquired by activision blizzard in january 2016 . active radical entertainment vancouver canada 1991 acquired by vivendi games in 2005 . active