The maker of the Candy Crush Saga video game reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates after it attracted more users for products such as Farm Heroes Saga.

Activision Blizzard and a group led by chief executive Bobby Kotick have agreed to buy out most of Vivendi’s stake in the biggest US video-game publisher for $8.17bn (€6.15bn), ending five years of control by the French media and telecommunications company.

China has closed down more than a dozen websites, penalising two popular social media sites and detaining six people for circulating rumours of a coup which rattled Beijing in the midst of its worst high-level political crisis in years.