Who Next for Activision?

Activision Publishing's president and chief executive, Mike Griffiths, has been saying the unsayable in this time of global economic apocalypse. Well, it's unsayable unless you are Square Enix.

Griffiths has told Bloomberg that "The combination of Activision holding a fair amount of cash and presumably prices being depressed, not only for publicly traded companies, but also likely for new intellectual property licensing rights, should certainly create opportunities."

In short, Activision Publishing has the money to buy up developers, ideas (sorry, 'intellectual properties') and even other publishers if it sees that the opportunities are right.

With Take-Two Interactive's stock price slipping below six dollars this week (they are over the $6 mark as of close of trade yesterday), and Activision lacking a solid sports line-up (always a money maker), New York could see a visit in the near future. Alternatively, as Griffiths says, "we won’t rush to judgment just because we have cash." So his statement to Bloomberg could just as well be a signal to analysts and stock holders that the company is not going to spend big.