after 17 years as a lone company, sierra was bought by cuc international in february 1996 to become part of cuc software. however, cuc international was caught in an scandal in 1998. therefore many of the original founders of sierra including the williamses left the company. sierra remained as part of cuc software as it was sold and renamed several times over the next few years; sierra was dissolved as a company and reformed as a division of this group in 2004. the former cuc software group was acquired by vivendi and branded as vivendi games in 2006. the sierra division continued to operate through vivendi games' merger with activision to form activision blizzard in 2008. however, it was shut down later. the sierra brand was revived by activision in 2014 to re-release former sierra games and some independently developed games.