ATVI - Activision ticks higher amid speculation it may have hired bank for activism defense

Activision ( NASDAQ: ATVI ) ticked up 0.3% amid speculation that the company may have hired Morgan Stanley for activism defense.

Morgan Stanley went restricted on Activision ( ATVI ) last week and it's unclear why it did so. Traders were talking about the MS restriction yesterday as well as a meeting that the Activision chief financial officer had in Boston with investors, likely contributing to ATVI's 1.5% gain on Monday.

There's some speculation that potentially the bank was hired for activism defense, CNBC's David Faber said on the business network on Tuesday. He said activist Elliott has been mentioned as a possible name. Faber explained that an activist could be involved to push the videogame behemoth to use their cash if the deal with Microsoft ( NASDAQ: MSFT ) is blocked by regulators.

The Activision ( ATVI ) CFO told investors on Monday that the company could use its cash for a dividend, buybacks or even mergers & acquisitions, according to CNBC's Faber.

Faber also said there remains a "glimmer" of hope that Activision/Microsoft could potentially allay the UK antitrust regulator's concerns by agreeing to sell a division or possibly reaching a deal with Sony ( SONY ), though he said both scenarios appear unlikely.

Earlier PaRR reported that The European antitrust regulator is set to hold a hearing next week as part of its in-depth review of Microsoft's (MSDT) planned $69 billion acquisition of Activision ( ATVI ).

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