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French telecoms giant Vivendi is reportedly looking for ways to extract cash from Activision Blizzard.
The company currently owns a 61 per cent stake in the Call of Duty publisher, but has been trying to sell this over the past few months.
With no interest from other parties, Vivendi is now considering a tender offer from Activision for part of that stake, according to the Financial Times (via Reuters). This offer would be funded by cash from Activision’s balance sheet or through a debt offering, according to sources familiar with the talks.
The FT also reports that, as of tomorrow, Vivendi will gain new powers that will allow it force Activision to pay a sizeable dividend.
Currently, the French firm must have the support of Activision’s independent directs before any dividend payment that would take the publisher’s net debt above $400m.
But these rules expire tomorrow (Tuesday, July 9th), enabling Vivendi to force payouts from Activision unchallenged.
Neither Vivendi nor Activision has commented on these reports.
