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Vivendi Universal sold/to merge with NBC


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Apparently Vivendi, owners of Sierra among other companies, have agreed to merge Vivendi Universal with NBC, with NBC/General Electric taking an 80% stake and Vivendi a 20% stake and some cash.

 

Sierra is a "subsidiary" of Vivendi Universal Games, part of VU but it's not clear whether that was part of the deal (most likely yes). This means Sierra has probably got yet another new owner. Obviously sierra will never make adventuregames again but it does still own the rights to a large number of series and games. To be honest this merger will have little effect on Sierra in the short term, though NBC might decide to sell its publishing arm off in the future; who knows.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3202093.stm

http://media.guardian.co.uk/city/story/0,7497,1034905,00.html

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what i find amusing is that Vivendi owns Fox Interactive... which means that NBC now owns Fox Interactive (assuming they're keeping all the subsidiaries)... which means the company Fox started up to make games out of the Fox franchises (X-Files game... *drools*) is now owned by NBC.

 

my company used to be owned by Vivendi. (Nothing real exciting -- we publish patient education materials -- we did get to buy Sierra games at discounted prices but who would want those anymore?) Vivendi sold us about a year ago (right around when their problems started surfacing). it's too bad we didn't hang on another year... i think we'd get better benefits from NBC than we do from the crappy parent company we have now.

 

-emily (off to fight with HR over her vacation balance... again...)

 

ps it's too bad that even if Sierra wanted to sell off its assets, they're probably not worth enough for NBC / General Electric / God to bother. now if NBC were go to bankrupt and needed to sell their assets to make some quick cash... nah. don't see that happening.

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lol @ Fox thing; I hate Rupert Murdoch so it's funny to think that one of his big competitors is making money of him. Does Fox Interactive right the scripts for Fox News because I hear they're pretty wild; something out of the X-files. (well the paranoia of the x-files without the charming aliens)

 

P.S. I've been thinking about the Sierra thing, and looking at the other media conglomerates I don't think any of them own games companies. Maybe they'll sell of the Universal Games part, though if they did the only companies that could afford it are the already fat bloated publishers. A second hope might be that some rich benefactor could buy back the rights to the adventure games, but sadly there are relatively few people in the adventure community with a few million knocking around... well apart from Ken Williams...

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Check it, yo.

Vivendi has decided not to sell its video games and music businesses, which had previously been earmarked for disposal, for the time being.

 

However, Vivendi is considering splitting its activities into two separate companies: one including the telecoms assets, and one including the remaining entertainment assets.

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Originally posted by amishler

Check it, yo.

 

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vivendi has decided not to sell its video games and music businesses, which had previously been earmarked for disposal, for the time being.

 

However, Vivendi is considering splitting its activities into two separate companies: one including the telecoms assets, and one including the remaining entertainment assets

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Darn, there goes my lifelong dream to see a Leisure Suit Larry TV series.... :)

 

--BPF

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I found out whats been sold and whats not. Vivendi Universal Entertainment has been sold as mentioned; thats mainly just the american entertainment assets (USA network, Scifi, Universal Studios and Theme Parks etc).

 

Vivendi still own Vivendi Universal Games, Universal Music, the Canal+ group and two telecoms companies; which means Sierra, Blizzard etc are still part of VUG.

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I think VUG needs to be sorted out now that they are keeping it, like its split into so many factions and brands all working against each other. They have a lot of amazing titles signed up (like dredd vs death) and many huge untapped franchises (crash/spyro), with more organisation they could challenge EA..

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