Last week news came out that Activision Blizzard was to essentially buy back its independence from Vivendi, through purchasing the shares owned in the games publisher by the French company.
The deal is expected to be worth $8.2 billion, split between Activision Blizzard purchasing 429 million shares, while Kotick will lead an investment group to purchase another 83 million shares for $2.34 billion.
However Todd Miller, an Activision shareholder, has filed a lawsuit claiming the deal will not benefit Activision Blizzard financially. Instead the claim is that should the deal go through then the Kotick and Kelly led investment group will own almost 25% of the publisher. Furthermore, Miller claims that six members of the investment group have conflicts of interest due to being former executives of Vivendi.
The lawsuit also claims that on completion of the deal the investor group will gain a windfall of $664 million almost immediately, triggering an accusation of unlawful enrichment by Mr Miller. The other charge includes waste of corporate assets.
Activision Blizzard, Vivendi or Kotick’s investment group are yet to respond to the accusations and unless a court rules that this deal is unlawful there is very little chance this lawsuit will be successful. Vivendi need the money from the deal so they’ll push for completion anyway. If this lawsuit is successful it won’t stop a buyout, just one using the terms outlined in this sale.
Source: Courthouse News
