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Ubisoft reportedly preparing to fight hostile takeover by Vivendi
Ubisoft Entertainment SA, the multinational game studio and publisher behind the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games, is reportedly reaching out to Canadian investors to prevent a potential takeover of French mass media company Vivendi SA.
According to Canadian news publication The Globe and Mail, Ubisoft has confirmed that it is looking for investors in Canada, where the company’s biggest studios are located, in order to prevent Vivendi’s attempts to take control.
“We want to increase the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital,” Ubisoft founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said. “We feel it’s a good defense.”
Vivendi has had a strange relationship with the video game industry over the years. The company’s now-defunct gaming division, Vivendi Games, was previously the holding company for game publisher Sierra Entertainment (King’s Quest, Half-Life) and game developer Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft, StarCraft), among others.
Vivendi Games later merged with Activision Inc in 2007 to create game publishing giant Activision Blizzard Inc, which is today one of the largest publishers in the industry. Within a few years, Vivendi sold off a large portion of its shares, making Activision Blizzard an independent company primarily owned by public shareholders.
More recently, Vivendi has appeared to take a renewed interest in the video game industry after it purchased a 6.6 percent stake in Ubisoft last year, buying 7.36 million shares for a total of $161 million. At the time, Guillemot said that the move was “unsolicited and unwelcome.”
According to The Globe and Mail, a takeover by Vivendi could potentially affect over 3,000 jobs at Ubsioft, many of which are located in Canada.
This is likely one reason that Ubisoft recently earned a visit from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who toured Ubisoft’s studio in Montreal.
.@UbisoftMTL employs more than 2600 people. Thanks for today's visit & discussions on the future of the industry. pic.twitter.com/ireORiyIdp
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 25, 2016
It is unclear exactly how a Vivendi takeover would affect those jobs, but it looks like Ubisoft is not interested in finding out.
Image courtesy of Ubisoft Entertainment SA
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