Activision Blizzard’s Non-GAAP 2016
Projections: Revenues of $6.25 Billion, Operating Income of Over $2
Billion and EPS of $1.751
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR
INDIRECTLY (IN WHOLE OR IN PART) IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION
WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF
SUCH JURISDICTION
Activision Blizzard, Inc. (“Activision Blizzard”) (Nasdaq:ATVI)
and King Digital Entertainment plc (“King”) (NYSE:KING) today
announced the completion of the acquisition of King, under which
ABS Partners C.V. (“ABS Partners”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Activision Blizzard, acquired all of the outstanding shares of King
for $18.00 in cash per share, for a total equity value of $5.9
billion.
Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard,
said, “We now reach over 500 million users across almost every
country, making us the largest game network in the world. We see
great opportunities to create new ways for audiences to experience
their favorite franchises, from Candy Crush to World of Warcraft to
Call of Duty and more, across mobile devices, consoles and personal
computers. On behalf of Activision Blizzard, we are delighted
to welcome Riccardo, Sebastian, Stephane and all of King’s talented
employees to our family.”
Riccardo Zacconi, Chief Executive Officer of King, said, “We are
thrilled to now be a part of Activision Blizzard and can’t wait to
start working together. I want to thank everyone at King for all of
their hard work since we founded the company 13 years ago. We are
excited about the future as we continue developing more exciting
games and explore new ways to serve our players and build on the
greatest franchises in interactive entertainment.”
King will continue to be led by Chief Executive Officer Riccardo
Zacconi, Chief Creative Officer Sebastian Knutsson, and Chief
Operating Officer Stephane Kurgan and operate as an independent
unit of Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard has a world-class interactive entertainment
portfolio of top-performing franchises including two of the
top-five-grossing mobile games in the U.S. (Candy Crush Saga®,
Candy Crush Soda Saga™)2, the world’s most successful console game
franchise (Call of Duty®), and the world’s most successful personal
computing franchise (World of Warcraft®), as well as such well
known franchises as Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone®: Heroes
of Warcraft™, StarCraft®, and Diablo® and Activision Publishing’s
Destiny® and Skylanders®, along with over 1,000 game titles in its
library.
The acquisition has been effected today by means of scheme of
arrangement under Chapter 1 of Part 9 of the Irish Companies Act
2014. The consideration to which King shareholders are entitled to
will be despatched by ABS Partners within 14 days in the manner
described in the scheme circular relating to the acquisition and in
accordance with the requirements of the Irish Takeover Rules. In
connection with the completion of the acquisition, King’s ordinary
shares ceased to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange
as of the close of market yesterday, February 22, 2016, and the
listing was suspended before the market opened today.
About Activision Blizzard and ABS Partners
Activision Blizzard, Inc., a member of the S&P 500, is the
world’s most successful standalone interactive entertainment
company. It develops and publishes games based on some of the most
beloved entertainment franchises, including Call of Duty®, Destiny,
Skylanders®, Guitar Hero®, World of Warcraft®, StarCraft®, Diablo®,
and Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™. The company is one of the
FORTUNE “100 Best Companies To Work For®” 2015. Headquartered in
Santa Monica, California, it has operations throughout the world,
and its games are played in 196 countries. Activision Blizzard
makes games for leading interactive platforms. Activision Blizzard
is a corporation organised and existing under the General
Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, USA and is listed to
trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “ATVI”. More
information about Activision Blizzard and its products can be found
on the company's website, www.activisionblizzard.com.
ABS Partners C.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision
Blizzard, Inc., is a partnership formed in the Netherlands for the
purpose of making the acquisition. ABS Partners has not traded
since its establishment, nor has it entered any obligations, other
than in connection with the acquisition and the financing of the
acquisition.
About King
King Digital Entertainment plc (NYSE:KING) is a leading
interactive entertainment company for the mobile world. It had a
network of 318 million monthly unique users as of fourth quarter
2015, has developed more than 200 exclusive games, and offers games
in over 200 countries and regions through its king.com and
royalgames.com websites, Facebook, and mobile distribution
platforms such as the Apple App Store, Google Play
Store and Amazon Appstore. King has game studios
in Stockholm, Malm�, London,
Barcelona, Berlin, Singapore, and Seattle, along
with offices in San Francisco, Malta,
Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Bucharest.
Responsibility for this Announcement
The directors of Activision Blizzard, Inc. and the sole manager
of ABS Partners I, LLC (in its capacity as the general partner of
ABS Partners C.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision
Blizzard, Inc. formed for the purpose of acquiring King Digital
Entertainment plc) accept responsibility for the information
contained in this Announcement other than the information relating
to King, the King Group, and the directors of King and members of
their immediate families, related trusts and persons connected with
them, for which the directors of King accept responsibility. To the
best of the knowledge and belief of the directors of Activision
Blizzard, Inc. and the sole manager of ABS Partners I, LLC (in its
capacity as the general partner of ABS Partners C.V.) (who have
taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case), the
information contained in this Announcement for which they accept
responsibility is in accordance with the facts and does not omit
anything likely to affect the import of such information.
The directors of King accept responsibility for the information
contained in this Announcement relating to King, the King Group and
the directors of King and members of their immediate families,
related trusts and persons connected with them (excepting
information regarding Activision Blizzard for which the directors
of Activision Blizzard, Inc. and the sole manager of ABS Partners
I, LLC accept responsibility). To the best of the knowledge and
belief of the directors of King (who have taken all reasonable care
to ensure that such is the case), the information contained in this
Announcement for which they accept responsibility is in accordance
with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the
import of such information.
Forward-looking statements
This Announcement, including information referenced in this
Announcement, may contain certain "forward looking statements"
regarding the financial position, business strategy or plans for
future operations of Activision Blizzard, King or their respective
boards of directors, as the case may be. All statements other than
statements of historical fact included in any document may be
forward looking statements. Forward looking statements also often
use words such as "believe", "expect", "estimate", "intend",
"anticipate" and words of a similar meaning. By their nature,
forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainty that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by
them. Much of the risk and uncertainty relates to factors that are
beyond the companies' abilities to control or estimate precisely,
such as future market conditions and the behaviours of other market
participants, and therefore undue reliance should not be placed on
such statements which speak only as at the date of this
Announcement.
Any forward-looking statements in this Announcement are based
upon information available to Activision Blizzard, King and/or
their respective boards of directors, as the case may be, as of the
date of this Announcement and, while believed to be true when made,
may ultimately prove to be incorrect. Subject to any obligations
under applicable law, rules and regulations, none of Activision
Blizzard, King or any member of their respective boards of
directors undertakes any obligation to update any forward-looking
statement whether as a result of new information, future
developments or otherwise, or to conform any forward-looking
statement to actual results, future events, or to changes in
expectations. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking
statements attributable to Activision Blizzard, King, their
respective boards of directors or any person acting on behalf of
any of them are expressly qualified in their entirety by this
paragraph. None of Activision Blizzard, King, or their respective
directors, officers or employees, advisers or any person acting on
their behalf, provides any representation, assurance or guarantee
that the occurrence of the events expressed or implied in any
forward looking statements in this Announcement will actually
occur.
Further Information
The release, publication or distribution of this Announcement in
or into certain jurisdictions may be restricted by the laws of
those jurisdictions. Accordingly, copies of this Announcement and
all other announcements relating to the acquisition are not being,
and must not be, released, published, mailed or otherwise
forwarded, distributed or sent in, into or from any restricted
jurisdiction. Persons receiving such announcements (including,
without limitation, nominees, trustees and custodians) should
observe these restrictions. Failure to do so may constitute a
violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. To the
fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the companies involved
in the acquisition disclaim any responsibility or liability for the
violations of any such restrictions by any person.
This Announcement is not intended to, and does not, constitute
an offer to purchase, sell, subscribe for or exchange, or the
solicitation of an offer to purchase, sell, subscribe for or
exchange or an invitation to purchase, sell, subscribe for or
exchange any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval
in any jurisdiction pursuant to the acquisition or otherwise, nor
shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any
jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. This Announcement
does not constitute a prospectus or an equivalent document and it
is not intended to, and does not, constitute or form any part of an
offer or invitation to sell or purchase or subscribe for any
securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or
the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction
pursuant to the acquisition or otherwise.
This Announcement has been prepared for the purposes of
complying with Irish law and the Irish Takeover Rules and the
information disclosed may not be the same as that which would have
been disclosed if this Announcement had been prepared in accordance
with the laws and regulations of any jurisdiction outside
Ireland.
If you are in any doubt as to whether or not you are required to
disclose a dealing under Rule 8, please consult the Irish Takeover
Panel's website at www.irishtakeoverpanel.ie or contact the Irish
Takeover Panel on telephone number +353 1 678 9020 or fax number
+353 1 678 9289.
A copy of this Announcement will be made available by Activision
Blizzard free of charge, subject to certain restrictions relating
to persons in restricted jurisdictions, on activisionblizzard.acquisitionoffer.com by no
later than 12 noon ET/New York time on February 24, 2016.
1 As originally announced in Activision Blizzard’s earnings
release dated February 11, 2016. For a reconciliation of non-GAAP
items to GAAP, please see the financial reconciliation tables that
accompanied that release, which can be found at
www.activisionblizzard.com.
2 For fourth quarter 2015 on both Apple App Store and Google
Play Store; according to App Annie.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160223006057/en/
Media:Activision BlizzardMary
OsakoActivision Blizzard, SVP, Global Communications+1 424 322
5166Mary.Osako@Activision.comorSard Verbinnen & CoFor
US:Cassandra Bujarski/Devin Broda+1 310 201
2040cbujarski@sardverb.com / dbroda@sardverb.comorFor
Europe:Michael Henson/Jonathan Doorley+44 20 3178
8914mhenson@sardverb.com / jdoorley@sardverb.com
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