Ubisoft might get taken over by Vivendi, seeks Canada's help to prevent it

[Bouzoo]

 

We heard a while ago that Vivendi bought shares of Ubisoft, and you might remember that their CEO Yves Guillemot was not quite happy about it, he said that the purchase was, and I'll quote," unsolicited and unwelcome", and it seems the store is far from finished. After things got a bit more complicated with Gameloft since Vivendi was forced by the French law to offer a takeover bid ~$750 million for their share of more than 30% of the company, and considering Vivendi owns 10.39% of Ubisoft shares at the moment, Guillemot wants to prevent the same thing from happening to Ubisoft.

They decided to turn their attention to Canadian investors. 

Quote

We want to increase the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital,” Mr. Guillemot said, adding he’s approaching investors with longer-term investment horizons who have a feel for the company’s history and corporate culture. “We feel it’s a good defense.”

Mr. Guillemot said he believes he needs the support of 50 per cent or more of the votes to block Vivendi from making board changes during the next annual shareholders meeting scheduled for September.

With no time to spare, Ubisoft CEO confirmed they are already meeting this week with dozen potential investors in Canada, and even confirmed that recently he had a meeting with Philippe Couillard, the current Premier of Quebec as it was also revealed that today he had a meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meaning he would welcome an investment from the government.

 

He also said that he thinks that being forced to work with Vivendis partners might be bad since he thinks Ubisoft might forge better relationships with big players like Warner Bros. He likes the independency Ubisoft has in decision making. 

If Vivendi manages to take over Ubisoft, who knows what might happen, with thousands of jobs being at stake, it might end badly or it might be for the better. Yay or nay?

 

What do you think?

 

Sources: 1, 2, 3

[RZeroX]

That company is also thinking of buying Gameloft.

[samcool55]

...who the hell wants to buy them?

Ubisoft keeps on digging, and out of nowhere some idiot decides to throw money in their hole! What kind of BS is this?

 

But on the other hand, i like the panic at ubisoft. Tbh they deserve it after all the sh*t they gave pc gamers.

 

[Anult]

8 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

...who the hell wants to buy them?

Ubisoft keeps on digging, and out of nowhere some idiot decides to throw money in their hole! What kind of BS is this?

 

But on the other hand, i like the panic at ubisoft. Tbh they deserve it after all the sh*t they gave pc gamers.

 

I'm not a fan of ubisoft but if they get bought by vivendi, you would wish for the current ubisoft to be back.

 

Vivendi have a track record of destroying companies inside and out, there is a reason why ubisoft don't want to be bought by them.

[Bouzoo]

13 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

...who the hell wants to buy them?

Stop for a second and think of all the IP's they own, from Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia and Far Cry to anything that has Tom Clancy in it, Heroes of Might and Magic and many more.

[samcool55]

4 minutes ago, Pintend said:

I'm not a fan of ubisoft but if they get bought by vivendi, you would wish for the current ubisoft to be back.

 

Vivendi have a track record of destroying companies inside and out, there is a reason why ubisoft don't want to be bought by them.

Never heard of vivendi but it does look like a big deal. But still, why would they want ubisoft?

Tbh it would make more sense if they wanted EA but oh well...

 

Also for some weird reason Ubisoft's stock is doing really well... And i don't know why.

It had a crash couple of weeks ago, and at this moment they are going up like a rocket...

[dalekphalm]

27 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Never heard of vivendi but it does look like a big deal. But still, why would they want ubisoft?

Tbh it would make more sense if they wanted EA but oh well...

 

Also for some weird reason Ubisoft's stock is doing really well... And i don't know why.

It had a crash couple of weeks ago, and at this moment they are going up like a rocket...

Vivendi used to own Sierra Entertainment, back when they made the original Homeworld games. Vivendi games division merged with Blizzard to form Blizzard Activision, and immediately closed down Sierra.

[Prysin]

quickly, @LinusTech buy stocks in Ubi, save them from evil. Then fix them from within....

 

 

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, Prysin said:

quickly, @LinusTech buy stocks in Ubi, save them from evil. Then fix them from within....

 

 

inb4 Nvidia bribes him to buy stocks in them instead of Ubisoft

[Prysin]

Just now, Dan Castellaneta said:

inb4 Nvidia bribes him to buy stocks in them instead of Ubisoft

some time ago, Linus hinted to AMD actually sponsoring him more then Nvidia (not sure if "all time" or "as of late" )

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, Prysin said:

some time ago, Linus hinted to AMD actually sponsoring him more then Nvidia (not sure if "all time" or "as of late" )

kek

[samcool55]

25 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Vivendi used to own Sierra Entertainment, back when they made the original Homeworld games. Vivendi games division merged with Blizzard to form Blizzard Activision, and immediately closed down Sierra.

That's sad, they made some nice games, didn't know that.

But on the other hand EA does the same cr*p, if you look at what they have done, it's nothing to be proud of.

I really don't understand why companies kill good dev studio's that made a lot of brilliant things.

 

Imo the list of great gaming series is getting smaller and smaller and i'm worried what's going to be left of it in like 10 years... I predict not much.

 

Racing games for example had some nice series like midnight club, juiced, test drive unlimited, fallout and burnout. And all of them are gone... The only ones left are need for speed, forza and gran turismo. But forza is xbox only, gran turismo is ps only and not doing great, and the new need for speed is the only promising looking AAA game that will be released in a long time for multiple platforms.

 

And i'm talking about game series here, not games that are usually crappy and don't get a worthy follow up or in some cases nothing at all.

We pay a lot more, and get a lot less in most cases... That's not how it works!

They are just killing competition and charging us way more than we should because there aren't any alternatives.

 

But oh well... Let's see how it goes...

[GoodBytes]

Business 101: Set Poison Pill rules when you go public, to avoid hostile takeover.

[MoonSpot]

Meh, ubi's been dead to me since they abandoned BG&E2 anyway.  Let them go.

[NtB]

3 hours ago, samcool55 said:

Also for some weird reason Ubisoft's stock is doing really well... And i don't know why.

It had a crash couple of weeks ago, and at this moment they are going up like a rocket...

It seems like their stock started shooting up right around when they announced they would be taking a break from Assassin's Creed this year to 're-examine' the series.

[pixeldensity]

On 2/26/2016 at 4:43 PM, samcool55 said:

...who the hell wants to buy them?

Ubisoft keeps on digging, and out of nowhere some idiot decides to throw money in their hole! What kind of BS is this?

 

But on the other hand, i like the panic at ubisoft. Tbh they deserve it after all the sh*t they gave pc gamers.

 

when a company buys another company, it is because of their assets, not their past actions. So I assume that they are after the studios and ip that they have

[RagnarokDel]

On ‎2016‎-‎02‎-‎26 at 4:43 PM, samcool55 said:

...who the hell wants to buy them?

Ubisoft keeps on digging, and out of nowhere some idiot decides to throw money in their hole! What kind of BS is this?

 

But on the other hand, i like the panic at ubisoft. Tbh they deserve it after all the sh*t they gave pc gamers.

 

Who wants to buy a corporation that made 171 million in profit last year? (a bit over 11.6% of revenue) Any company that can afford it.

[IAcKI]

Don't forget guys just because Ubisoft throws us PC gamers under the bus it doesn't mean that they appear evil to everyone and hence are still profitable!