Investor sues Activision over merger

While EA’s takeover bid for Take-Two has hogged all the limelight for the past week, there is finally some other big news concerning another major deal. According to a report from Bloomberg, an investor has sued Activision as it is disgruntled with the terms of the publisher’s merger with Vivendi SA. The investor, Michigan-based Employees’ Retirement System, alleges that the company’s management failed to secure the best possible deal, and that the merger puts shareholders at a disadvantage.

In December 2007, Activision and Vivendi announced a merger in a deal worth $18 billion, which will create the world’s biggest video game company, Activision-Blizzard, when the merger consummates later this year. Under the agreed terms, Vivendi will hold a controlling stake of 52% in the new company, while Activision will hold the rest.

“The merger, stock purchase and tender offer, working in concert, convey control of Activision to Vivendi but fail to offer the Activision stockholders an opportunity to realize a true control premium for their stock,” the investor’s lawyers said in a complaint filed at Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington on February 8, 2008.

Read [Bloomberg] via [Game Daily]