Pentwater Capital Management, Jericho Capital Asset Management, Balyasny Asset Management, and Citadel Advisors, all upped their holdings in Activision Blizzard during Q2 ahead of a key court ruling on the video-game maker’s proposed $69bn merger with Microsoft, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The report cites the latest 13-F filings as revealing that the funds’ move to boost their stock positions came before Microsoft’s court win over regulators in July which ended eight months of uncertainty over Activision’s future and cleared the way for the deal to proceed, subject to approval by the UK authorities.
Event-driven specialist Pentwater upped its stake by more than any other fund, adding about 5.87 million shares in the quarter to take its holding to 21.3 million shares, which would be worth roughly $1.9 billion at current prices.
Jericho, Balyasny, and Citadel Advisors also raised their holdings by at least two million shares each, while Pentwater and some of the other funds also had options positions in Activision that may have been aimed at hedging the share holdings, according to the filings.
