02-26-2016, 08:48 PM
The French giant Vivendi has begun making moves to take control of the game developer and publisher Ubisoft.Vivendi went from having around a 10% stake in Ubisoft to 15% in the recent months.
Ubisoft is doing everything within their power to keep Vivendi at bay, calling the situation a ‘hostile’ takeover by Vivendi.
Yves Guillemot (Ubisoft’s CEO) started Ubisoft along with his four brother more than 30 year ago and he doesn’t want to give it up to Vivendi. Guillemot and a group of executives have been in Canada this week, meeting with potential investors to shore up support as the French media conglomerate continues to buy shares in the company. Canada is a logical choice for Guillemot to shore up support. The company has major studios in Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto, and employs over 3,000 people in the country. On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau toured the Ubisoft Montreal studios, trying out some of the company’s virtual reality offerings.
“We want to increase the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital,†saidGuillemot before continuing on to say that he is approaching investors with longer-term investment horizons. “We feel it’s a good defence.â€
Vivendi, who once owned a nice percentage of Activision Blizzard (Blizzard bought their way out of that), has even gone as far as making an unsolicited offer to Gameloft SE, a company owned by one of the Guillemot brothers. By approaching one of the co-founders with 500-million euros ($750-million), it appears as though Vivendi is looking to buy their way into outvoting the Ubisoft CEO.
What do you think about this?
Provided by GameVify.
Ubisoft is doing everything within their power to keep Vivendi at bay, calling the situation a ‘hostile’ takeover by Vivendi.
Yves Guillemot (Ubisoft’s CEO) started Ubisoft along with his four brother more than 30 year ago and he doesn’t want to give it up to Vivendi. Guillemot and a group of executives have been in Canada this week, meeting with potential investors to shore up support as the French media conglomerate continues to buy shares in the company. Canada is a logical choice for Guillemot to shore up support. The company has major studios in Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto, and employs over 3,000 people in the country. On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau toured the Ubisoft Montreal studios, trying out some of the company’s virtual reality offerings.
“We want to increase the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital,†saidGuillemot before continuing on to say that he is approaching investors with longer-term investment horizons. “We feel it’s a good defence.â€
Vivendi, who once owned a nice percentage of Activision Blizzard (Blizzard bought their way out of that), has even gone as far as making an unsolicited offer to Gameloft SE, a company owned by one of the Guillemot brothers. By approaching one of the co-founders with 500-million euros ($750-million), it appears as though Vivendi is looking to buy their way into outvoting the Ubisoft CEO.
What do you think about this?
Provided by GameVify.