As a person who was in the WotLK beta I can 100% affirm that Blizzard's wish to merge everything into battlenet has been going on a lot longer than when they became Actard(tm)... They do and have pretty much kept complete autonomy through their last what, 3 purchases? What keeps boggling my mind is how a company with such a high net income can keep being bought out I have not seen a deal that hasn't involved Blizzard where some web site or another hasnt pointed out that Blizzard is pretty much a hands off... They just get to claim the income revenues as part of themselves to boost their standing.. Vevindi able to buy Activision? Well after they got ahold of Blizzard, yeah!