Activision Blizzard's Non-GAAP 2016 Projections: Revenues of $6.25
Billion, Operating Income of Over $2 Billion and EPS of $1.751
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY
(IN WHOLE OR IN PART) IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO
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SANTA MONICA, Calif. & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Activision Blizzard, Inc. ("Activision Blizzard") (Nasdaq:ATVI) and King
Digital Entertainment plc ("King") (NYSE:KING) today announced the
completion of the acquisition of King, under which ABS Partners C.V.
("ABS Partners"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard,
acquired all of the outstanding shares of King for $18.00 in cash per
share, for a total equity value of $5.9 billion.
Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, said, "We
now reach over 500 million users across almost every country, making us
the largest game network in the world. We see great opportunities to
create new ways for audiences to experience their favorite franchises,
from Candy Crush to World of Warcraft to Call of Duty and more, across
mobile devices, consoles and personal computers. On behalf of Activision
Blizzard, we are delighted to welcome Riccardo, Sebastian, Stephane and
all of King's talented employees to our family."
Riccardo Zacconi, Chief Executive Officer of King, said, "We are
thrilled to now be a part of Activision Blizzard and can't wait to start
working together. I want to thank everyone at King for all of their hard
work since we founded the company 13 years ago. We are excited about the
future as we continue developing more exciting games and explore new
ways to serve our players and build on the greatest franchises in
interactive entertainment."
King will continue to be led by Chief Executive Officer Riccardo
Zacconi, Chief Creative Officer Sebastian Knutsson, and Chief Operating
Officer Stephane Kurgan and operate as an independent unit of Activision
Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard has a world-class interactive entertainment
portfolio of top-performing franchises including two of the
top-five-grossing mobile games in the U.S. (Candy Crush Saga®, Candy
Crush Soda Saga™)2, the world's most successful console
game franchise (Call of Duty®), and the world's most successful
personal computing franchise (World of Warcraft®), as well as
such well known franchises as Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone®:
Heroes of Warcraft™, StarCraft®, and Diablo® and
Activision Publishing's Destiny® and Skylanders®, along
with over 1,000 game titles in its library.
The acquisition has been effected today by means of scheme of
arrangement under Chapter 1 of Part 9 of the Irish Companies Act 2014.
The consideration to which King shareholders are entitled to will be
despatched by ABS Partners within 14 days in the manner described in the
scheme circular relating to the acquisition and in accordance with the
requirements of the Irish Takeover Rules. In connection with the
completion of the acquisition, King's ordinary shares ceased to be
publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as of the close of market
yesterday, February 22, 2016, and the listing was suspended before the
market opened today.
About Activision Blizzard and ABS Partners
Activision Blizzard, Inc., a member of the S&P 500, is the world's most
successful standalone interactive entertainment company. It develops and
publishes games based on some of the most beloved entertainment
franchises, including Call of Duty®, Destiny, Skylanders®, Guitar Hero®,
World of Warcraft®, StarCraft®, Diablo®, and Hearthstone®: Heroes of
Warcraft™. The company is one of the FORTUNE "100 Best Companies To Work
For®" 2015. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, it has operations
throughout the world, and its games are played in 196 countries.
Activision Blizzard makes games for leading interactive platforms.
Activision Blizzard is a corporation organised and existing under the
General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, USA and is listed to
trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "ATVI". More information
about Activision Blizzard and its products can be found on the company's
website, www.activisionblizzard.com.
ABS Partners C.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard,
Inc., is a partnership formed in the Netherlands for the purpose of
making the acquisition. ABS Partners has not traded since its
establishment, nor has it entered any obligations, other than in
connection with the acquisition and the financing of the acquisition.
About King
King Digital Entertainment plc (NYSE:KING) is a leading interactive
entertainment company for the mobile world. It had a network of 318
million monthly unique users as of fourth quarter 2015, has developed
more than 200 exclusive games, and offers games in over 200 countries
and regions through its king.com and royalgames.com websites, Facebook,
and mobile distribution platforms such as the Apple App Store, Google
Play Store and Amazon Appstore. King has game studios in Stockholm,
Malmö, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Singapore, and Seattle, along with
offices in San Francisco, Malta, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Bucharest.
Responsibility for this Announcement
The directors of Activision Blizzard, Inc. and the sole manager of ABS
Partners I, LLC (in its capacity as the general partner of ABS Partners
C.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. formed for
the purpose of acquiring King Digital Entertainment plc) accept
responsibility for the information contained in this Announcement other
than the information relating to King, the King Group, and the directors
of King and members of their immediate families, related trusts and
persons connected with them, for which the directors of King accept
responsibility. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the directors
of Activision Blizzard, Inc. and the sole manager of ABS Partners I, LLC
(in its capacity as the general partner of ABS Partners C.V.) (who have
taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case), the
information contained in this Announcement for which they accept
responsibility is in accordance with the facts and does not omit
anything likely to affect the import of such information.
The directors of King accept responsibility for the information
contained in this Announcement relating to King, the King Group and the
directors of King and members of their immediate families, related
trusts and persons connected with them (excepting information regarding
Activision Blizzard for which the directors of Activision Blizzard, Inc.
and the sole manager of ABS Partners I, LLC accept responsibility). To
the best of the knowledge and belief of the directors of King (who have
taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case), the
information contained in this Announcement for which they accept
responsibility is in accordance with the facts and does not omit
anything likely to affect the import of such information.
Forward-looking statements
This Announcement, including information referenced in this
Announcement, may contain certain "forward looking statements" regarding
the financial position, business strategy or plans for future operations
of Activision Blizzard, King or their respective boards of directors, as
the case may be. All statements other than statements of historical fact
included in any document may be forward looking statements. Forward
looking statements also often use words such as "believe", "expect",
"estimate", "intend", "anticipate" and words of a similar meaning. By
their nature, forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainty
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those
suggested by them. Much of the risk and uncertainty relates to factors
that are beyond the companies' abilities to control or estimate
precisely, such as future market conditions and the behaviours of other
market participants, and therefore undue reliance should not be placed
on such statements which speak only as at the date of this Announcement.
Any forward-looking statements in this Announcement are based upon
information available to Activision Blizzard, King and/or their
respective boards of directors, as the case may be, as of the date of
this Announcement and, while believed to be true when made, may
ultimately prove to be incorrect. Subject to any obligations under
applicable law, rules and regulations, none of Activision Blizzard, King
or any member of their respective boards of directors undertakes any
obligation to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result
of new information, future developments or otherwise, or to conform any
forward-looking statement to actual results, future events, or to
changes in expectations. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking
statements attributable to Activision Blizzard, King, their respective
boards of directors or any person acting on behalf of any of them are
expressly qualified in their entirety by this paragraph. None of
Activision Blizzard, King, or their respective directors, officers or
employees, advisers or any person acting on their behalf, provides any
representation, assurance or guarantee that the occurrence of the events
expressed or implied in any forward looking statements in this
Announcement will actually occur.
Further Information
The release, publication or distribution of this Announcement in or into
certain jurisdictions may be restricted by the laws of those
jurisdictions. Accordingly, copies of this Announcement and all other
announcements relating to the acquisition are not being, and must not
be, released, published, mailed or otherwise forwarded, distributed or
sent in, into or from any restricted jurisdiction. Persons receiving
such announcements (including, without limitation, nominees, trustees
and custodians) should observe these restrictions. Failure to do so may
constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the companies
involved in the acquisition disclaim any responsibility or liability for
the violations of any such restrictions by any person.
This Announcement is not intended to, and does not, constitute an offer
to purchase, sell, subscribe for or exchange, or the solicitation of an
offer to purchase, sell, subscribe for or exchange or an invitation to
purchase, sell, subscribe for or exchange any securities or the
solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to the
acquisition or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or
transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of
applicable law. This Announcement does not constitute a prospectus or an
equivalent document and it is not intended to, and does not, constitute
or form any part of an offer or invitation to sell or purchase or
subscribe for any securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy any
securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any
jurisdiction pursuant to the acquisition or otherwise.
This Announcement has been prepared for the purposes of complying with
Irish law and the Irish Takeover Rules and the information disclosed may
not be the same as that which would have been disclosed if this
Announcement had been prepared in accordance with the laws and
regulations of any jurisdiction outside Ireland.
If you are in any doubt as to whether or not you are required to
disclose a dealing under Rule 8, please consult the Irish Takeover
Panel's website at www.irishtakeoverpanel.ie
or contact the Irish Takeover Panel on telephone number +353 1 678 9020
or fax number +353 1 678 9289.
A copy of this Announcement will be made available by Activision
Blizzard free of charge, subject to certain restrictions relating to
persons in restricted jurisdictions, on activisionblizzard.acquisitionoffer.com
by no later than 12 noon ET/New York time on February 24, 2016.
1 As originally announced in Activision Blizzard's earnings
release dated February 11, 2016. For a reconciliation of non-GAAP items
to GAAP, please see the financial reconciliation tables that accompanied
that release, which can be found at www.activisionblizzard.com.
2 For fourth quarter 2015 on both Apple App Store and Google
Play Store; according to App Annie.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160223006057/en/
Media:
Activision Blizzard
Mary
Osako
Activision Blizzard, SVP, Global Communications
+1 424
322 5166
Mary.Osako@Activision.com
or
Sard
Verbinnen & Co
For US:
Cassandra Bujarski/Devin Broda
+1
310 201 2040
cbujarski@sardverb.com
/ dbroda@sardverb.com
or
For
Europe:
Michael Henson/Jonathan Doorley
+44 20 3178 8914
mhenson@sardverb.com
/ jdoorley@sardverb.com
Source: Activision Blizzard, Inc.
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