http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/...ndi_activision
Quote:
LOS ANGELES - Vivendi SA said Sunday that it plans to acquire a controlling stake in Activision Inc. and combine the company with Vivendi Games in a deal that would create a rival to Electronic Arts Inc. as the world's largest video game publisher.
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The combination of Santa Monica-based Activision, whose titles include "Guitar Hero," "Call of Duty" and the "Tony Hawk" series, and Vivendi Games, which publishes "Crash Bandicoot" and owns the online role-playing franchise "World of Warcraft," would create the world's largest pure-play online and console game publisher, the companies said.
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There's something familiar about this article to the rash of corporate mergers earlier in the decade. All of the talk is about profitability and the wealth of the company. Nobody wants to address what this means for the consumers.
We know, though, that when the world becomes less diversified, our options shrink and thus our world starts to look less like the vision in our head and more like the vision in some rich bastard's head.
As individuals, is there a way to fight against the conglomerates? With 80% of all media (TV, Movies, Books, Magazines, Radio) being owned by 6 major corporations, it's impossible to open your eyes without looking at a product that was graciously provided to you by these powers. These powers who all work together, mind you, in the spirit of cooperation, not competition.
Unless we grow our own food and cotton, and hire our nieces and nephews to sing and dance for us, nearly 80% of each dollar we spend makes its way into the pockets of these major corporations. (Which brings up an interesting question: do the Amish use USD when making transactions?)
It isn't like what I've just written hasn't been written before, but I want to draw attention to the focus of these business mergers. They merge in the interest of profitability and market share, not customer satisfaction.