Rumour: Microsoft in frame to buy Activision majority share

Potential buyers for Vivendi's 60 percent share of Activision Blizzard include Microsoft, Time Warner and Tencent, news source Reuters has reported.

Media corporation Vivendi has apparently started "testing the appetite" of potential buyers for part or all of its 60 percent share of Activision Blizzard.

The sale process has not yet officially begun, but bankers close to Vivendi are said to be sounding out cash buyers including the likes of Chinese company Tencent as well as Time Warner and Microsoft.

"It's nothing official yet, but they've asked a bank to go and talk to possible buyers for Activision," said a source close to the Vivendi board.

A sale by Vivendi could supposedly help raise up to $10 billion to shore up its share price. Reuters reported that both Microsoft and Time Warner declined to comment on a possible buy-out.