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[thorns]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050120/lath023_1.html

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Strengthening its next-generation development capabilities, Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI - News) today announced that it has acquired game developer Vicarious Visions, the creative studio behind the #1 best-selling third-party Nintendo® DS title, Spider-Man 2(TM). Vicarious Visions' proven proprietary Alchemy(TM) middleware technology and tools will be combined with Activision's next-generation tools and libraries to further enhance the company's overall development efforts.

The acquisition underscores Activision's strategy to continue building its technical infrastructure in order to take full advantage of the high-growth potential of the next-generation hardware platforms by acquiring technical and design talent with a history of high-quality product creation, while over time enhancing the company's financial operating model.

Vicarious Visions has developed five games that have sold more than one million-units each and is currently co-developing the highly anticipated DOOM 3(TM) for the Xbox with id Software, as well as Spider-Man 2, which will be a launch title for the upcoming PSP platform. In addition, they have developed such popular titles for the Game Boy Advance as Shrek 2(TM), Shrek 2: Beg for Mercy(TM), DreamWorks' Shark Tale(TM) and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro(TM) for the PlayStation game console.

Kathy Vrabeck, President of Activision Publishing, said, "Vicarious Visions' talented development team and proprietary technology combined with our internal systems and capabilities will play a key role in Activision's continued leadership on the next-generation platforms. Vicarious Visions has a track record of success and we are very excited to partner with them."

Under the terms of the agreement, Vicarious Visions' 100-person studio, headquartered in Troy, NY, with offices in Mountain View, CA, has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision. As part of the transaction, Vicarious Visions' management team and key employees have signed long-term employment contracts with Activision.

"We have shared a strong relationship with Activision over the past five years on platforms ranging from Game Boy Color to most recently the Nintendo DS, Xbox and Sony PSP," said Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions. "Joining the Activision family seemed like the logical next step and we look forward to continuing to build great games and a great company together."

Guha Bala, President of Vicarious Visions adds, "We've always admired Activision's ability to expand and evolve with the ever changing video game industry. Their franchises include some of our favorites, and their strong marketing and development capability makes them a great partner for our studio."

 

[Solid]

This can't be right. EA is supposed to buy them.

 

[thorns]

btw it seems they paid only about $5 million..

 

[MassiveAttack]

btw it seems they paid only about $5 million..

No way in hell. Vicarious has been one of the most hotly pursued dev studios in the world. Their valuation is at least four times that amount.

 

[thorns]

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/718877/000095013805000029/jan-424b3.txt

Upon completion of the merger, each Vicarious Visions common shareholder
received cash, and upon the achievement of certain criteria with respect to
sales of certain video game products over a certain period time, each such
common shareholder will receive his or her pro rata share of up to an aggregate
of 263,716 shares of Activision common stock, par value $.000001 per share, as
contingent consideration. On January 18, 2004, the closing sale price of our
common stock as reported by Nasdaq was $22.23 per share, and the total value of
the shares which may be distributed as contingent consideration is
$5,268,508.64. Holders of options issued under the Vicarious Visions, Inc. 2001
Stock Option Plan only received cash upon completion of the merger.

ok, I guess they paid some cash also, but it is only $5 million worth of shares.

 

[Datawhore]

No way in hell. Vicarious has been one of the most hotly pursued dev studios in the world. Their valuation is at least four times that amount.

They haven't published an original IP game in years. A developer without IP rights is only worth the talent at the studio. $5 million for 100 dudes sounds about right

IMHO, this is why Bioware is waiting to sell out to the man. Last year, before E3, rumours were surfacing that Microsoft or EA was interested in purchasing them. At that time, they didn't own a single IP that had been released to market (IIRC). They probably would have only fetched $15-20M based on their staff levels and stellar track record. By holding off until next year, or 2007, they will be worth considerably more once Jade Empire, Dragon Age, and whatever Unreal Engine 3 game they have up their sleeve ships. Their value will sky rocket if those games are successful (highly probable).

 

[Shard]

I am still tryin g to figure out how this former perenial GBC developer managed to get a bunch of high profile FPS porting jobs.

Also, isn't VV supposed to be working on the Hlaf-Life 2 X-Box port in additon to working on the X-Box DOOM 3 port?