Est. 1998
Playing Out of Control Gaming

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/ Adam Richardson

Cendant Selling Software Unit

Cendant Corp., seeking to focus on its franchising businesses, said Friday it was selling its video game and consumer software business to French media company Havas in a deal that could fetch as much as $1 billion.

Cendant Selling Software Unit is the story on November 20, 1998, and it is one of those late-1998 PC gaming updates that says exactly where the scene is right now. Cendant Corp., seeking to focus on its franchising businesses, said Friday it was selling its video game and consumer software business to French media company Havas in a deal that could fetch as much as $1 billion. Cendant said Havas would pay $800 million in cash plus future cash contingent payments that could total $200 million.

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 business side keeps moving, and sometimes those deals decide what we actually get to play next year.