Adding to today's Ubisoft-related news, a report via Polygon has placed the company as having finally bested Vivendi's hostile takeover attempt. if you'll recall, this is an on-again, off-again "love" affair from Vivendi towards Ubisoft, and was based on the fact that vivendi controlled the biggest stake in Ubisoft shares than any other shareholder, at 27.27%.

I say was, because Vivendi's share of Ubisoft is being divested by the former, following a deal that was signed between Vivendi and Ubisoft. The way this was done was as follows: Ubisoft itself is buying back as much as 8.1% of its shares from Vivendi from 2019 through 2021. Guillemot Brothers SE - which represents Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family - is buying an extra 2.7% of the company in a cash transaction with Vivendi. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan - an independent organization that administers pensions for about 318,000 teachers in Canada - is acquiring a 3.4% stake, and Tencent (the Shenzhen, China-based company that is the world's largest gaming company by revenue) is buying an additional 5% of the company.

French media conglomerate Vivendi has been amassing Ubisoft shares over a course of two years. The company is the biggest shareholder at the moment owning approximately 26% of Ubisoft's shares. By French accounting law, Vivendi is obligated to make a mandatory bid once their shareholder percentage surpasses the 30% mark. Earlier this year, the French giant made it clear that the hostile takeover would happen before the year ends. It won't be their first rodeo, since they took over Gameloft not so long ago. The gaming sector is the second largest in the content industry after all, so you can't hardly blame Vivendi for wanting a bigger piece of the pie. However, business plans do change over time. According to Vivendi's recent third-quarter financial report, the company has postponed the Ubisoft takeover for at least another six months.

Publisher Activision today announced that its merger with Blizzard Entertainment parent company Vivendi Games has been approved by the board of shareholders, and the transaction is expected to officially close today, July the 9th. The new company, dubbed Activision-Blizzard, is valued at roughly US $18.9 billion.

Activision and Vivendi Games will combine their businesses through the merger of a newly formed, wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision with and into Vivendi Games. As a result of the merger, Vivendi Games, the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision. Vivendi will receive approximately 295.3 million newly issued shares of Activision common stock. Concurrently with the merger, Vivendi will purchase approximately 62.9 million newly issued shares of Activision common stock at a price of $27.50 per share for a total of approximately $1.7 billion in cash, resulting in a total Vivendi ownership stake in Activision Blizzard of approximately 52% on a fully diluted basis and approximately 54% of shares outstanding. As of the closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a worldwide pure-play online and console game publisher with leading market positions across all categories of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry.

According to this press release, the France-based Vivendi has secured a $5.13 billion loan to help in part with its upcoming Vivendi Games merger deal with Activision to form Activision Blizzard. Part of the loan will also help Vivendi with another financial deal unrelated to the Activision merger.

Activision and Vivendi today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business - which includes Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, the world's #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise - with Activision, creating the world's largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.