For the past couple of years, Ubisoft has been fighting the threat of a hostile takeover from Vivendi, who aggressively purchased stock. According to GamesIndustry.biz, Vivendi has sold all its Ubisoft stock. All 30.5 million shares, or 27.3% of Ubisoft’s capital, have been purchased from Vivendi, mainly Guillemot Brothers SE. Roughly 8% of the stock was purchased by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Tencent, which purchased 3.4% and 5% respectively. As a part of this deal, Vivendi has promised not to purchase any Ubisoft stock for at least the next five years.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated that “The evolution in our shareholding is great news for Ubisoft. It was made possible thanks to the outstanding execution of our strategy and the decisive support of Ubisoft talents, players and shareholders. I would like to warmly thank them all.”
Hopefully this is the last we see of Vivendi’s hostile takeover efforts, though obviously we’ll have to wait and see. This is great news for Ubisoft and for gamers as well. Hostile takeovers are usually not beneficial, and with the company’s future safe for the time being, Ubisoft can focus its financial efforts on continuing to build studios like in Berlin, deliver games and new content for existing titles.Â
