America’s largest professional eSports organization ‘Major League Gaming’ has reportedly been acquired by Activision Blizzard in a $46 million deal.
eSports Observer said in a report that MLG’s Board of Directors approved an Asset Purchase Agreement on December 21 which granted Activision Blizzard a majority of its assets in exchange for $46 million.
The report said that the deal was made as a “corporate action taken without a stockholders’ meeting by less than unanimous written consent of our stockholders,” allowed under Section 228(e) of the Delaware General Corporation Law.
In addition, CEO Sundance DiGiovanni was replaced by MLG’s former CFO Greg Chisholm.
The eSports Observer report strongly suggests that Activision Blizzard acquired a major stake in MLG for $46 million. However, it should be stressed that no official statement confirming the deal has been released by either company at this time.
Major League Gaming, founded in 2002 by Mike Sespo and Sundance DiGiovanni, became the first televised gaming league in the US, with USA Network broadcasting their Halo 2 Pro Series in 2006.
It opened the first professional gaming arena in the US in Ohio two years ago and the organization planned on building another arena in China by 2017.
However, MLG has faced stiff competition over the past year. The organization lost the hosting rights for the Call of Duty World League’s Pro Division to the ESL in October.
In addition, MLG has been weighed down by heavy debt for quite a while – this is believed to be one of the main reasons behind the asset sale.
The game publisher which reportedly acquired MLG, Activision Blizzard, has created multiple multimillion-dollar video game franchises, such as Call of Duty, StarCraft, and Warcraft. It is now one of the largest gaming companies in the world in terms of revenue and recently joined the S&P 500 on August 28, 2015.
