Activision Blizzard, the subsidiary of Vivendi, which was established on July 9, 2008, is quite possibly the largest company in the video game industry to date. Consisting of the studios of the former Vivendi Games and that of Activision, the merging of the company was a successful monopolizing action to create a cornsterstone in the entertainment market. Now, with eight months having gone by and a healthy transition into the following year complete, Jean-Bernard Lévy of Vivendi feels as though the goals of their task have been achieved and that they did in fact become the greatest third-party force in the entertainment industry.

With his statement came a series of remarks regarding the company's output, "Vivendi’s shareholders will benefit from our strong 2008 results. Our strategy has allowed Vivendi to strengthen its leadership in each activity. Our balance sheet is solid and our liquidity secure. At the shareholders’ meeting we will propose to increase the dividend per share to €1.40"

Mr. Lévy continued to comment on the future of the compnay, going on to say that, "despite the current market conditions, I approach 2009 with confidence and vigilance. Vivendi has the ability to resist, due to its subscription based model and the quality of its contents and services, added to continuous cost control. The profitable growth is expected to continue. Vivendi expects its EBITA will show strong growth in 2009.”

Since 2008, Activision Blizzard has four of the top-10 best-selling games worldwide for the year. In North America and Europe, for the calendar year, Activision Blizzard has two of the top-five best-selling franchises on the consoles across all platforms -- Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, and is the #1 third-party publisher for the Wii platform, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and Gfk.

World of Warcraft remained the top MMORPG with a subscription base of over 11.5 million players worldwide. Additionally, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was the #1 PC title in North America and Europe in 2008. More than 2.8 million copies were sold in the first 24 hours and four million in the first month of sales.

According to Vivendi’s IFRS GAAP standards, Activision Blizzard’s 2008 revenues had achieved €2,091 million while EBITA had reached €34 million. These reported results include the negative impact of the change in deferred net revenues and the related cost of sales which resulted in a €416 million ($554 million) reduction in EBITA, non-core exit operations losses of €127 million and €122 million in one-time costs related to the Vivendi transaction, integration and restructuring.

On a U.S. non-GAAP comparable basis (the industry standard for publishers and a more accurate reflection of best performance), Activision Blizzard delivered considerable 2008 results, despite the global impact of the economic crisis.

Activision Blizzard finished the year as the largest and most profitable third-party publisher with more than $5 billion in net revenues and US non-GAAP comparable-basis operating income of $1.2 billion, outdoing their previous competition, Electronic Arts.

According to company analysis, this puts Activision Blizzard almost an entire year ahead of its previousfinancial goals ($4.3 billion in US non-GAAP net revenues and a US non-GAAP operating income of $1.1 billion) outlined ever since the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games was unveiled last year.

Activision Blizzard owns several popular esport titles, such as StarCraft, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft.