French telecom and media group Vivendi won permission from the European Commission on Wednesday to merge its videogame unit with Activision in a $9.85 billion deal, a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report said the complex deal will give Vivendi a 52% stake in a new industry giant called Activision Blizzard with annual revenue of $3.8 billion, rivaling that of Electronic Arts, the world's biggest independent game publisher.
The Commission said for 'all categories of game software, the combined firm would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.'
Activision is riding high on the success of games such as 'Guitar Hero,' 'Call of Duty' and 'Tony Hawk' but has lacked an offering in the online role-playing area, dominated by 'World of Warcraft' from Vivendi's Blizzard Entertainment, the report said.