Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Vivendi stated today that Vivendi had reached its goals that it set out for itself in 2008 regardless of the enconomic situation in the world. In 2008, they created Activision Blizzard now one of the largest publishers in the world (not that Activision was so small before that).

He continued on to say, "Vivendi’s shareholders will benefit from our strong 2008 results. Our strategy has allowed Vivendi to strengthen its leadership in each activity. Our balance sheet is solid and our liquidity secure. At the shareholders’ meeting we will propose to increase the dividend per share to €1.40" 

In regards to looking forward Mr. Lévy said that , "despite the current market conditions, I approach 2009 with confidence and vigilance. Vivendi has the ability to resist, due to its subscription based model and the quality of its contents and services, added to continuous cost control. The profitable growth is expected to continue. Vivendi expects its EBITA will show strong growth in 2009.”

Here’s the info on the Activision-Blizzard section of the company.

On July 9, 2008 Vivendi and Activision completed the combination of Activision Blizzard, the world’s most profitable pure-play online and console game publisher.

In 2008, Activision Blizzard has four of the top-10 best-selling games worldwide for the year. In North America and Europe, for the calendar year, Activision Blizzard has two of the top-five best-selling franchises on the consoles across all platforms -- Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, and is the #1 third-party publisher for the Wii platform, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and Gfk. World of Warcraft, the global #1 subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game’s subscriber base exceeded 11.5 million players worldwide (versus 10 million subscribers at the end of 2007). Additionally, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was the #1 PC title in North America and Europe in 2008. More than 4 million copies were sold in the first month of sales.

In accordance with Vivendi’s IFRS GAAP standards, Activision Blizzard’s 2008 revenues were €2,091 million and EBITA was €34 million. These reported results include the negative impact of the change in deferred net revenues and the related cost of sales which resulted in a €416 million ($554 million) reduction in EBITA, non-core exit operations losses of €127 million and €122 million in one-time costs related to the Vivendi transaction, integration and restructuring.

On a U.S. non-GAAP comparable basis (the industry standard for publishers and a more accurate reflection of best performance), Activision Blizzard delivered record 2008 results. Activision Blizzard finished the year as the largest and most profitable third-party publisher with more than $5 billion in net revenues and US non-GAAP comparable-basis operating income of $1.2 billion. The company is one year ahead of the 2009 financial goals ($4.3 billion in US non-GAAP net revenues and a US non-GAAP operating income of $1.1 billion) outlined when the combination of Activision and Blizzard was announced.