Guitar Hero developer cost Activision around $100M

It has been revealed that Activision's acquisition of Guitar Hero developer RedOctane cost the publisher $99.9 million.

In the company's 10-Q form filed with the Securities and Exchange the full cost of Activision's purchase of RedOctane has been revealed to be $99.9 million.

"On June 6, 2006, we completed our acquisition of 100% of RedOctane, Inc. (RedOctane) for an aggregate accounting purchase price of $99.9 million including transaction costs, consisting of $30.9 million in cash and 2,382,077 shares of Activision common stock valued at approximately $30.0 million based upon prevailing market prices, and $39.0 million payable in Activision common stock within two years of the closing date, which is recorded in other liabilities," states the report.

It's possible that the acquisition will end up costing around half as much again, with the report also noting an additional payment of $51 million in shares to RedOctane shareholders "in the event the net income of the business over a certain period of time exceeds certain target levels by certain amounts..."

Obviously needing to recoup the cost of acquiring the Guitar Hero franchise, Activision has already revealed plans to release an all-new Guitar Hero title in its fiscal year 2008 (April 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008) - this is in addition to Guitar Hero II which is heading to PS2 later this year.