Blizzard Entertainment? Who's that now?
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham.
On July 9, 2008, Activision merged with Vivendi Games, culminating in the inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding company
"Since 2018, the company's reputation has suffered from a series of poorly received games, controversies involving players and staff, and allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct against leading Blizzard employees"🍿
Davidson was acquired along w/Sierra On-Line by CUC International in 1996. CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, & car-rental franchiser, HFS Corporation,to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger.
The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line (which included Blizzard) to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi
Up through 2006, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision, had been working to rebound the company from near-bankruptcy, and had established a number of new studios.
However, Activision lacked anything in the MMO market. Kotick saw that World of Warcraft was bringing in over US$1.1 billion a year in subscription fees, and began approaching Vivendi's CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy about potential acquisition of their struggling Vivendi Games division
..which included Blizzard Entertainment. Lévy was open to a merger, but would only allow it if he controlled the majority of the combined company, knowing the value of World of Warcraft to Kotick.
Among those Kotick spoke to for advice included Blizzard's Morhaime, who told Kotick that they had begun establishing lucrative in-roads into the Chinese market.
#China
#China
Blizzard established a distribution agreement with the Chinese company NetEase in August 2008 to publish Blizzard's games in China. The deal focused on StarCraft II which was gaining popularity as an esport within southeast Asia
..as well as for other Blizzard games with the exception of World of Warcraft, still being handled by The9. The two companies established the Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology for managing the games within China
sec.gov
sec.gov
UK NETEASE INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
1 active person with significant control
Netease, Inc.
PO BOX 309, Ugland House, Grand Cayman, Ky1-1104, Cayman Islands
That's a familiar address 🤔
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
1 active person with significant control
Netease, Inc.
PO BOX 309, Ugland House, Grand Cayman, Ky1-1104, Cayman Islands
That's a familiar address 🤔
In 2018, Mike Morhaime announced his plans to step down as the company president & CEO while remaining an advisor to the company; he formally left on April 7, 2019. Morhaime was replaced by J. Allen Brack, the executive producer on World of Warcraft.🍿
youtube.com
youtube.com
Frank Pearce announced he would be stepping down as Blizzard's Chief Development Officer on July 19, 2019, though will remain in an advisory role similar to Morhaime
Activision Blizzard was the subject of a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in July 2021, asserting that for several years the management within Blizzard as well as Activision promoted a "frat boy" atmosphere
"As a result of the California lawsuit and of delays and release issues with their more recent games, Activision Blizzard's stock faced severe pressure. Subsequently, Microsoft seized the opportunity to become one of the largest video game companies in the world.."🍿
"and announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries, including Blizzard, for $68.7 billion in January 2022. .. The deal is expected to close by October 18, 2023, during which Activision Blizzard will remain its own company and,
Blizzard acquired Proletariat, the developers of Spellbreak, in June 2022 as to help support World of Warcraft. The 100-employee studio remained in Boston but will shutter Spellbreak as they move onto Warcraft
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