Cendant has a buyer!!!

News: Just as Sierra is finally doing well, with very good games like Caesar 3 and Red Baron 3D, and exceptional titles like Grand Prix Legends and Half-Life, this happens. I heard that this news may not be very good for Cendant at all. Cendant Set To Sell Software Unit To Havas -Source NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. franchiser Cendant Corp. (NYSE:CD - news) is set to announce the sale of its consumer software business to French media group Havas, a deal that could fetch as much as $1 billion, a source close to the deal said Thursday. The transaction with Havas, a unit of Vivendi SA, could be announced as early as Friday, the source said. Company officials could not be reached for comment. Cendant's consumer software business consists of four previously independent makers of computer entertainment and educational software -- Sierra On-Line, Knowledge Adventure, Blizzard Entertainment and Davidson and Associates. The businesses had been acquired by CUC International, which merged last December with HFS Inc. in an $11 billion deal to form Parsippany, N.J.-based Cendant. CUC originally agreed to pay $2.2 billion to acquire Sierra and Davidson in 1996. The disposal of the software business, which has been expected, is part of Cendant's plan to dispose of non-core operations and focus on its main franchising and direct marketing efforts. In a related effort, Cendant canceled in October its previously announced plans to acquire Miami-based American Bankers Insurance Group Inc. (NYSE:ABI - news), a deal that would have required it to pay roughly $3.1 billion. The cancellation followed the steep drop in Cendant's stock earlier this year after the company disclosed that it had uncovered several years of widespread ``accounting irregularities'' at its former CUC business. In recent months, Cendant has moved aggressively to restore investor confidence in its ongoing businesses. The firm is the franchiser of Avis car rentals, Ramada Hotels, Century 21 real estate brokerages and other brand names. Cendant stock closed at $14.44, up $1.06, on the day Thursday in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Prior to the stock's precipitous decline earlier this year, Cendant traded as high as $41.69, but in recent months the shares have gained ground from a low of $6.50.

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>I get the impression, though, that the buyer is like the venture >capitalists who poured into the computer *** industry two years ago >with no understanding of how things work and just expecting the money >to roll right back to them. Expect to see a lot more Myst-clones, bad >RTS games, and lousy FPS from them as a result of this. >Joel Mathis

Are you crazy, the FRENCH bought them - and that can only mean one thing...INCA III, and INCA racing games (INCA 500), and INCA real time strategy games (INCAcraft) , and who knows, maybe even an INCA FPS (Half-INCA). Oh yes...life will be good.

uttered: Um, wasn't it a French water-works company? Hooray, "Pipeman" shall be ressurrected! :-) --

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>uttered: >>Are you crazy, the FRENCH bought them - and that can only mean one >>thing...INCA III, and INCA racing games (INCA 500), and INCA real time >>strategy games (INCAcraft) , and who knows, maybe even an INCA FPS >>(Half-INCA). >Um, wasn't it a French water-works company? Hooray, "Pipeman" shall be >ressurrected! :-)

Silly point- but isn't Cendant themselves, a french company? :)

Wasn't Sierra bought by Hachette Filipacchi (the BIG French publishing company)? If so, then we're in big trouble. =P Cheers! Marc > Silly point- but isn't Cendant themselves, a french company? > :) -- Marc J. Nelson SimRacing Online - http://www.simracing.com/ * Switch confused.net with concentric.net to reply...Confused-yet? *

> Wasn't Sierra bought by Hachette Filipacchi (the BIG French publishing company)? If so, then > we're in big trouble. =P > Cheers! > Marc UGh, why is that? I've heard the same thing, that it won't be good... Grimfarrow

> Wasn't Sierra bought by Hachette Filipacchi (the BIG French publishing company)? If so, then > we're in big trouble. =P Well, any change at Sierra will be positive! Having THREE different directories named "Sierra" on my drives (I like to organize my games myself), having those dumb Sierra utilities installed, makes me really angry. Let ME put my sims where I want...! l8er ronny -- Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure, kiddo?" |\ _,,,---,,_ I want to die like my Grandfather, ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ in his sleep. |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Not like the people in his car, '---''(_/--' `-'\_) screaming their heads off!

Here's the wire service report: NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - U.S. franchiser Cendant Corp. (NYSE:CD - news) is set to announce the sale of its consumer software business to French media group Havas, a deal that could fetch as much as $1 billion, a source close to the deal said on Thursday. The transaction with Havas, a unit of Vivendi SA , could be announced as early as Friday, the source said. Officials of Cendant -- franchiser of Avis car rentals, Ramada Hotels, Century 21 real estate brokerages and other brand names -- could not be reached for comment. Cendant's consumer software business consists of four previously independent makers of computer entertainment and educational software -- Sierra On-Line, Knowledge Adventure, Blizzard Entertainment and Davidson and Associates. The businesses had been acquired by CUC International, which merged last December with HFS Inc. in an $11 billion deal to form Parsippany, N.J.-based Cendant. The disposal of the software business is part of Cendant's plan to dispose of non-core operations in order to focus on its main franchising and direct marketing efforts. In a related effort, Cendant scratched in October its plans to acquire Miami-based American Bankers Insurance Group Inc. (NYSE:ABI - news), a deal that would have required it to pay roughly $3.1 billion.

>The disposal of the software business is part of Cendant's plan to dispose >of non-core operations in order to focus on its main franchising and direct >marketing efforts. In a related effort, Cendant scratched in October its >plans to acquire Miami-based American Bankers Insurance Group Inc. >(NYSE:ABI - news), a deal that would have required it to pay roughly $3.1 >billion. Typical company press release. They're actually selling off assets to make up for all the money that was embezzled over the last year, and all the "creative accounting" that ended up getting half the management fired. The game companies will probably be better off with new owners. They gave up on American Bankers Insurance because they couldn't come up with enough capital. -Krud