Those who play video games are definitely familiar with Activision Blizzard products. Games like Call of Duty allow punishing noobs in the multiplayer, while World of Warcraft turned out to be the best friend to preserve your virginity.
The popularity of video gaming and eSports create a great potential for the future growth of the whole industry. There is no doubt that Activision will play one of the crucial roles. Therefore, the decision to invest in Activision Blizzard shares can be a lifetime opportunity.
Activision Blizzard Merger Time And After
Activision Blizzard Inc was founded in 2008 as the result of the merger of Activision Inc and Vivendi Games. The latter was a subsidiary of the large French mass media conglomerate and formerly the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment. Right after the deal was settled, the new company’s stock reached approximately $18 per share. For the next 5 years, the stock was trading in the price range of $9 – $13. Then, starting from the year 2013 until now Activision Blizzard stock was on the fucking crazy ride upwards. As the result, it joined the S&P 500 stock market index.
Activision Blizzard Now
By making a huge success of its products like Call of Duty, Destiny, Hearthstone, Overwatch and many others, Activision Blizzard has been breaking all the records. For example, Call of Duty Black Ops III brought $550 million in sales worldwide just in its opening weekend. The company releases CoD on the annual basis and makes nearly $1 billion on selling each game, if not more in some cases.
Currently, the stock is worth $62 per share. Activision Blizzard market cap is $46.73 billion and it made $7.03 billion in the latest quarter. Additionally, we should also mention that the company’s EPS is 1.47.
Is Activision Blizzard stock a great deal?
Some people say that video games are for wankers without a personal life. Sceptics should take a note – even in 2016 players spent more than 43 billion hours in Activision Blizzard games. In comparison, Netflix subscribers spent around 45 billion hours on streaming the content via the platform. The demand for games is growing, especially for Activision Blizzard gaming portfolio.
Despite that the company’s stock hit the all-time high recently, you should not fear to make Activision Blizzard stocks investment. With its current vector, Activision Blizzard is oriented on diversified and steady growth. The company is developing in different directions in the video gaming industry, including mobile gaming. In 2015, Activision acquired the mobile game key developer King Digital for $5.9 billion. So far, Activision Blizzard has been quite successful in the mobile games with its famous app Candy Crush. Love it or hate it, but it is damn addicting to quit.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Activision is certainly interested to make a lot of dollars on eSports in the future. Even back in 2016, Activision Blizzard acquired Major League Gaming (MLG). It seems that the company is building the whole infrastructure in the competitive gaming. Moreover, right now management is focused on launching the full-fledged Overwatch League. Activision Blizzard already sold first 7 Overwatch League teams to eSports organizations and individual entrepreneurs.