eSports Observer has revealed documents that seem to point to Activision having purchased a vast controlling interest of Major League Gaming (MLG) for a cool $46M, ousting board members without stockholder consent and paying off the league’s debt. The deal reportedly went down on 21 December 2015.
Sources allege Activision released CEO Sundance DiGiovanni, replacing him with the league’s former CFO, Greg Chisholm. Unfortunately for stockholders, they will probably not see a penny of the $46M because a good chunk of it is going to be used to pay off the league’s massive debt.
MLG used to be the major player of eSports in North America, but the league was usurped by ESL, owned by Turtle Entertainment. The latter teamed with Activision over MLG to sponsor the Call of Duty World League tournament. With the purchase of MLG, Activision is now in direct competition with ESL, and Call of Duty will likely be an exclusive to MLG.
Another motivation for Activision’s purchase is that Activision Blizzard’s stable of games ranks a distant fifth in prize pools in worldwide esports purses, with DOTA 2 and League of Legends ranked one and two, respectively. Owning its own league brand will undoubtedly help Activision get more of a piece of the pie.
