Activision

Activision Publishing is an American video game publisher. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles. Its first products were cartridges for the Atari 2600 video console system published from July 1980 for the US market and from August 1981 for the international market (UK). Activision is now one of the largest third party video game publishers in the world and was also the top publisher for 2007 in the United States.On January 18, 2008, Activision announced they were the top US publisher in 2007, according to the NPD Group.

 Its current CEO is Robert A. Kotick, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Activision, Inc. since February 1991 until Activision and Vivendi Games merged on July 9, 2008 to create the newly formed company known as Activision Blizzard. On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from owner Vivendi, valuing US$2.34 billion. As a result, Activision Blizzard became an independent company.