Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Surprises Macquarie With KING Acquisition; Macquarie Reiterates Outperform
Macquarie reiterated an Outperform rating on Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), and raised the price target to $36.00 (from $28.00), following the announced acquisition of King Digital Entertainment (NYSE: KING) and 3Q earnings results. Overall, 3Q numbers and commentary were mostly in line with expectations. Notably, FX impacted y/y ’15 EPS by $0.20.
Analyst Ben Schachter commented, "Wow. To say we are surprised by this news is an understatement. ATVI buying KING is not something that we considered possible given ATVI’s historical view of mobile and the types of deals that have been done in the space, as well as KING’s declining growth profile. Now that it has been announced, these are our thoughts."
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Shares of Activision Blizzard closed at $34.57 yesterday.