Activision Blizzard (parent company of Blizzard Entertainment) has agreed to buy King Digital Entertainment for USD$5.9 billion, merging major titles Call of Duty and World of Warcraft with the leading mobile title Candy Crush Saga under one company. Activision will pay USD$18 a share in cash, a 16 percent premium to King Digital’s closing price of USD$15.54 Monday in New York.
The boards of both companies have approved the transaction, Activision Blizzard said in a statement on Monday. Activision Blizzard will use $3.6 billion of cash stored outside the US, and borrow the rest with an incremental USD$2.3 billion term loan from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs Bank. According to recent market projection, King Digital is worth USD$4.9 billion.
