Activision tried to buy Blizzard before merging with Vivendi

If you can't beat em', join em', appears to be the logic used by Activision in the recently confirmed merger. The website for industry rag Variety is reporting that before the idea of a copacetic merger of two gaming giants was pitched, Activision was interested in just buying Blizzard outright from the Vivendi folks. Bobby Kotick was very interested in Vivendi's crown jewel and the possible revenues from the sparkle inside: World of Warcraft.

The article notes how different that tone was than just a few years ago, when Vivendi tried to sell their games business off to pay down debt. At the time no-one was willing to bite, a state of affairs the company is probably now very grateful for. Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillaume will apparently be one of the individuals quoted in an upcoming story on the site about the merger, and offered up this pithy insight about the deal.

Originally, Activision wanted to buy Blizzard. "'One game, World of Warcraft,' bought Activision."