Activision Buys King Digital; Releases Q3 Financials

Activision Buys King Digital; Releases Q3 Financials
[Nov 03, 2015, 10:31 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments

Activision Blizzard announces the acquisition of King Digital Entertainment, with the deal's 5.9 billion price tag reflecting how much the Candy Crush developer has been crushing it. The good news for them is that this brings Activision Blizzard's monthly total user count to more than a half-billion, and the deal is expected to boost Activision's adjusted revenue and earnings by about 30%. The potential bad news is that about a third of the company's revenue is from Candy Crush Saga, which is by far the most successful of the more than 200 games they've created since 2003. "The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment," states Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. "With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before." Activision Blizzard also announces "better-than-expected" third quarter 2015 financial results showing that World of Warcraft subscriptions, which they call "relatively stable" ended the quarter at 5.5 million, and in spite of the dropoff, note WoW "remains the No. 1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world." Here's more:

Selected Business Highlights:

Activision Publishing had its highest ever third quarter non-GAAP operating income, driven by strong engagement and digital revenue, with Q3 monthly active users (MAUs)B up 17% year-over-year, and the largest Q3 and year-to-date digital revenues in its history. Activision Publishing continues to have 3 of the top 5 games on next-generation consoles life-to-date.2

Activision Publishing's Call of Duty® franchise year-to-date non-GAAP revenues increased by a double-digit percentage year-over-year due to strong catalog sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, both for full game and Supply Drops. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare remains the No. 1 game on next-generation consoles life-to-date, as it has been since its launch a year ago.2

On September 15, 2015, Activision Publishing and Bungie released The Taken King, the largest update to the Destiny universe yet, which was enthusiastically received by fans and critics alike. Day-one downloads broke PlayStation records, day-one engagement saw the highest number of active players in Destiny's history, daily player engagement is now well above 3 hours per day and the Destiny community has climbed to over 25 million registered players. Since its launch, Destiny has become the most watched console game on Twitch.

On September 20, 2015, Activision Publishing released Skylanders® SuperChargers, the next installment in the franchise with all new vehicles, action figures and exclusive Nintendo characters. Even with increased competition, SuperChargers is one of Skylanders' highest-rated entries to date and has strong engagement, with more toys per player than last year.

Blizzard Entertainment's third quarter MAUsB were up 50% year-over-year, reflecting strong engagement with the online player community.

World of Warcraft® subscriptions remained relatively stable, ending the quarter at 5.5 million subscribersC. Players are excited about the upcoming expansion, Legion™, which will feature a new class, customizable Artifact weapons, class order halls, and much more. World of Warcraft remains the No. 1 subscription‐based MMORPG in the world.

On August 24, 2015, Blizzard Entertainment launched The Grand Tournament™, the second expansion for Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™, with over 130 new cards. As a result of this new content, continued strength on mobile, and continued strength across geographies, key engagement metrics grew 77% year-over-year and set a new quarterly revenue record for the franchise.

Blizzard Entertainment brought new players into Heroes of the Storm™ with the release of The Eternal Conflict, a series of content and hero additions based on the Diablo® universe. Blizzard also held the Heroes of the Storm regional championships as part of its Road to BlizzCon® esports series, including the Americas Championship in Las Vegas and the Europe Championship in Prague.

Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo III continued to bring in new players in Q3, and in China, the game passed the 2-million-unit milestone.

Blizzard Entertainment began closed beta testing for Overwatch™ on October 27, 2015, with over 7 million players signed-up to participate, not including China.

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32.

Re: Activision Buys King Digital; Releases Q3 Financials
Nov 4, 2015, 03:16

DarkCntry

32.

Re: Activision Buys King Digital; Releases Q3 Financials Nov 4, 2015, 03:16

Nov 4, 2015, 03:16

DarkCntry

Slick wrote on Nov 3, 2015, 22:13:
then I guess... enjoy your $5.9B purchase of CandyCrush! everytime you've given Acti-Bliz a dollar, you've basically been funding this deal. that's where your dollars go.

Well then, I guess you're one to not give money to any company, seeing as after-all, they are all using whatever money they gain to further expand their 'territory' in their markets, be it ActiBlizz or EA, or even McDonalds.

If you can't understand the difference between spending money on your own studios, developing new IPs, and generally trying to push gaming forward... and paying $5.9B for fucking candy crush, then you might just be too far gone for help.

If you cannot understand the concept of how businesses are run, then I might suggest not commenting on them. You keep parroting the whole cost of what they spent to purchase King without knowing that they have more than just Candy Crush, they also have millions of instilled users and teams of development staff already established and understanding of their market.

ActiBlizz has been looking to break into the mobile market (much like every other game company) and they went about it in a way that, normally, isn't a big deal.

You vote with your dollars, and you're obviously okay with a company taking zero chances, pushing out a watered down lowest-common-denominator rehash every 3 years. Oh and the billions they'll make off this garbage? You can rest assured that it will be well spent.

Zero chances? Sorry, but c'mon...Overwatch and Heroes are two new games entering a very saturated market, and both of them in their own ways are doing better in their early life cycles against their bigger contenders. Overwatch, which just entered closed 'testing' is garnering better marks than TF2 in the sense that it's a game that allows differing skill levels of players to play together and to actually contribute, where-as TF2 is well-known for being top dog and uses a high skill ceiling for the good players to the point that newer players are left so far in the dust that they couldn't contribute even if they tried.

I mean, really, you show just how ignorant of business you are here by showing an obvious bias, especially since you keep claiming "taking zero chances".

I'd rather give my income to publishers who A) take risks, B) employ thousands of developers, and not the publishers who A) never take a risk, and B) employ as few actual artists as they can financially get away with.

I really wonder where you get your information, because the last I saw no company out there doesn't take a risk in their sectors. Hell, since you seem so hellbent on this, spending $6B on another company is a risk, especially in the volatile mobile market where people's whims change near-hourly.

and to wash your hands of what's actually going on as "all companies only care about their bottom line" is irresponsible. Obviously they exist to make money, HOW they go about doing that is what's under scrutiny here, not the WHY. Elon Musk makes billions making electric cars, meanwhile BP makes billions from raping the planet and spitting carbon into the air... they both just want to make money! *washes hands* lol. get a clue.

How is ActiBlizz any different than EA, or CDPR, or any number of companies out there? What you're seeing is a company that wants to expand into a different sector and they have the resources to obtain the knowledge and skill of others.

Saying that all companies only care about the bottom-line is a simplistic retort, so yea, I'll own up to it, but it's neither dishonest nor irresponsible, it's standard business practice.

The red herring you toss up about Elon Musk is kinda funny...after-all, how does one make the batteries in those cars? You're talking about the outer-effects of companies, and not the actual role of said company, and honestly, that's literally the example of a strawman argument.

InBlack wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 03:04:
Why are you people even engaging Slick. Everyone knows that he shills for EA like he was on their fucking payroll. The sad thing is: He isn't.

It's midnight and I'm awake with little else to do, so I had some free time.

While I admit that Slick's been pretty adamant about his strange relationship over EA, it's just that there's so many people out there that throw impassioned responses to these events.

Like I pointed out, I'm a small-scale shareholder to ActiBlizz and, honestly, I strongly dislike the business practices of King...but I also recognize the business move this makes for both of them, and I could hope on a longshot that may, just maybe, it'll force King to stop ripping off other people's work.