Scheherazade wrote on Jul 11, 2012, 14:15:
Bosanac wrote on Jul 11, 2012, 11:22:
I don't get it.. Blizzard is a cash cow.. COD is a cash cow. Why call it liability?
Investors value business growth over business size.
A company that made 1 million last year and 10 million this year, is WAY more attractive than a company that made 100 million every year for the last N years.
Growth lets investors multiply their money.
Steady earnings just let you skim off some dividends.
Hence they can treat an extremely profitable "steady" business like it's worthless dirt.
-scheherazade
More importantly, Vivendi needs money now. They don't need the slow trickle of Activision money, though it's nice, they need a large chunk of change as soon as possible.
Their other assets are all hard to spin off and much closer to their business. Activision is a nicely independent island, with Vivendi holding a majority of it. That majority can be transferred to another owner with no real glitches.
It's about getting money as quickly as possible.