Activision wants to buy a piece of itself back from Vivendi

Activision Blizzard's majority stake holder Vivendi unsuccessful attempted to sell its stake in the World of Warcraft company last year. Now the French media company is gearing up to have another go, and Activision Blizzard may well be interested in buying some of the stake back. Vivendi previously hoped to sell Activision Blizzard last summer, with potential buyers including Microsoft and Tencent. However, it appeared that there wasn't a huge amount of interest at the time. Vivendi CFO Philippe Capron said this week that [subscription required] his company is looking at "a variety of options" for Activision Blizzard, and considering potential deals to sell its stake in the game developer, reports the Wall Street Journal. "The board continues to review a variety of different options, looking at ways to optimize the balance sheet," said Capron when asked about the fate of Activision Blizzard. "There is a process going at the board level." According to the Wall Street Journal, "people familiar with the matter" have suggested that Activision Blizzard would want to buy back some of Vivendi's stake. Notably, this latest attempt to sell its stake in Activision Blizzard follows a strong fiscal year for the company that was well in excess of projections, although the company says it is wary of the upcoming console transition.