Activision Blizzard Nearly a Reality

Activision Blizzard, soon likely to be the world's largest third party game publisher, is nearly here. The European Union (EU) is set to make a decision on whether the marriage of Activision and Vivendi conforms with its rules on mergers next week. A Thomson Financial business calendar tells us that April 16th is when the EU will make its decision.

As we were told in the initial announcement, the merger has to meet "European Union merger control regulations".

The announcement also stated, "the companies expect the transaction to be completed in the first half of calendar year 2008." That gives them just under three months to get the deal finalised.

In the meantime, the possibility of Electronic Arts acquiring Take-Two, thus potentially keeping its status as the world's largest third party games publisher, still hangs in the air.