Vivendi seized control of Gameloft, aims for UBi next

[Derangel]

1 hour ago, Suika said:

Activision merged with Blizz while Blizz was still owned by Vivendi, and then Activision-Blizzard split from Vivendi.

 

Sort of. Vivendi bought Activision and merged all of the gaming division into a company they called Activision-Blizzard. Acti-Blizz then later secured the funding to purchase themselves while Vivendi was having some financial issues.

[Fetzie]

1 hour ago, Derangel said:

 

Sort of. Vivendi bought Activision and merged all of the gaming division into a company they called Activision-Blizzard. Acti-Blizz then later secured the funding to purchase themselves while Vivendi was having some financial issues.

And using acti - blizz as a cashbox to prop up their failing cable television business.

[Bouzoo]

Well this was inevitable. Now to see if they can obtain Ubi. Does anyone know if Yves was able to find Canadian investors? 

[RagnarokDel]

Make Ubisoft a Quebec crown corporation

 

We already have a third of Ubisoft's workforce anyway

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, RagnarokDel said:

Make Ubisoft a Quebec crown corporation

 

We already have a third of Ubisoft's workforce anyway

Considering they are headquartered and founded in France, I really don't think they would appreciate a foreign government making it a crown corporation

[RagnarokDel]

3 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Considering they are headquartered and founded in France, I really don't think they would appreciate a foreign government making it a crown corporation

They literally asked us for investment. Also while you are right that the "HQs" are located in France. Montreal is basically where it's at.

[MDPS]

Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/vivendi-acquires-gameloft-targets-ubisoft/?utm_source=z1&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=exchange#:kqD90MHfhifVEA

 

Quote

Vivendi is reportedly eyeing former Gameloft parent company Ubisoft as its next hostile takeover target. Vivendi already owns a 17.7 percent stake in Ubisoft, though the company stated in a recent stock market filing that it has no plans for a buyout within the next six months.

So basically Vivendi, the massive French media company, just took over Gameloft, and Ubisoft may be their next target. They easily bought a controlling share from Gameloft, and they already have 17.7 percent of Ubisoft (and that's in fact growing).

 

I honestly don't know how I feel about this personally. Vivendi's statement said they wouldn't make a move for the next six months, but that doesn't mean they won't ever. I don't know a lot about how a takeover would affect their products, but it would definitely affect the company as a whole. Discuss?

[Ryoutarou97]

Well, they can't make Ubisoft worse.

[racer243l]

Ubisoft products have been getting better in recent time. This makes me fear that they´re quality would drop back to the worse days. Hopefully this doesn't happen

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

Well, they can't make Ubisoft worse.

#shotsfired

 

I'm not sure what hostile takeover means. Does that mean this company wants to buy Ubisoft with the purpose of firing everyone and closing it down?

[Trixanity]

5 minutes ago, Energycore said:

#shotsfired

 

I'm not sure what hostile takeover means. Does that mean this company wants to buy Ubisoft with the purpose of firing everyone and closing it down?

Quote

 

What is a 'Hostile Takeover'

A hostile takeover is the acquisition of one company (called the target company) by another (called the acquirer) that is accomplished by going directly to the company's shareholders or fighting to replace management to get the acquisition approved. A hostile takeover can be accomplished through either a tender offer or a proxy fight.

The key characteristic of a hostile takeover is that the target company's management does not want the deal to go through. Sometimes a company's management will defend against unwanted hostile takeovers by using several controversial strategies

 

Edit: I guess you could say in short: acquiring a company against the wishes of the current management which usually means using some kind of force to take control without agreement from the management.

[ShadowCaptain]

6 minutes ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

Well, they can't make Ubisoft worse.

They definitely can

[Bouzoo]

7 minutes ago, Energycore said:

I'm not sure what hostile takeover means. Does that mean this company wants to buy Ubisoft with the purpose of firing everyone and closing it down?

They have been buying shares for some quite time now, and according to French law (since Ubisoft is a French company), if Vivendi has more than 30% of the shares they have to make an offer of buying a controlling stake at the company. Hostile meaning that the current owners (the Guillemot family) has no saying if Vivendi tries to buy it. They just legally can. That's what happened with Gameloft.

[Notional]

3 minutes ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

Well, they can't make Ubisoft worse.

Ubisoft is not bad at all. Maybe a little generic open world games, but by no means bad games. The level of detail and looks of hated games like Watch Dogs and AC Unity is still world class and damn impressive if people stop their lame circle jerking for just 2 seconds and look around the world.

 

Just wait until they really stop innovating AND bump up the prices with micro transactions everywhere.

2 minutes ago, Energycore said:

#shotsfired

 

I'm not sure what hostile takeover means. Does that mean this company wants to buy Ubisoft with the purpose of firing everyone and closing it down?

No it means they buy up the stock majority of a company to ensure majority vote, thus effectively taking over control of the company against the will of the core owners, in this case, the actual founders of the company.

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

 

So any evil bastard could take a company if they have enough money. Fuck yeah capitalism.

[AMICLG]

6 minutes ago, Energycore said:

#shotsfired

 

I'm not sure what hostile takeover means. Does that mean this company wants to buy Ubisoft with the purpose of firing everyone and closing it down?

That would be exactly what not to do. Unless your OK with millions down the drain.

 

Usually when you take over a company and make it a subsidiary you want to keep most if not all employees.  Then put one of yours in charge of overseeing said company. 

 

The idea is to make a passive income to the parent company.

[Trixanity]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

So any evil bastard could take a company if they have enough money. Fuck yeah capitalism.

Well, that's the stock market for you. I mean if it was a private company it couldn't happen so there are advantages and disadvantages to being both private and public. Public probably allows you to grow faster but by putting your company out there and basically dividing them in small parts that are essentially open to purchase, you kinda run the risk that someone with the right amount of money comes in and buys up everything and throws you out. I guess in crude terms it would be like taking your house and everything in it and putting it up for auction whilst hoping no one buys everything but only the small things (I guess someone with a degree in business/economy will tear my analogy apart)

[themaniac]

would it be possibly to move Ubisoft out of france to make it a non french company?

[Misanthrope]

18 minutes ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

Well, they can't make Ubisoft worse.

You'd be surprised actually. They could basically become a wider scale Konami: Fuck games we'll turn ALL franchises into pachenco Machines or whatever. 

[Bouzoo]

19 minutes ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

Well, they can't make Ubisoft worse.

You may think that Ubisoft is bad but Vivendi is much, much worse. At one point they wanted to force Activision/Blizzard to pay $3 billion in dividends so they could pay of their debts but luckily iirc it was at that time that A/B bought themselves out of Vivendi. 

[MrRavens]

Oh man, I wonder what they're going to do with Ubisoft if they get them. They just want more money? Or are they planning some games, maybe take Ubisoft titles outside the gaming realm like Konami. Does anyone know what they really want out of this acquisition? 

[Ryoutarou97]

2 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

You'd be surprised actually. They could basically become a wider scale Konami: Fuck games we'll turn ALL franchises into pachenco Machines or whatever. 

Pachinko is f***ing great I will have you know. If they can do it to Evangelion, it can be done to watchdogs too.

 

6 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

You may think that Ubisoft is bad but Vivendi is much, much worse. At one point they wanted to force Activision/Blizzard to pay $3 billion in dividends so they could pay of their debts but luckily iirc it was at that time that A/B bought themselves out of Vivendi. 

Well, damn. I mostly don't play Ubi games anyways (must have sometime) so it doesn't affect me, but still that's pretty bad.

[Misanthrope]

4 minutes ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

Pachinko is f***ing great I will have you know. If they can do it to Evangelion, it can be done to watchdogs too.

*looks at nickname*

*looks at avatar *

 

You've got me there I should have seen this one coming. 

[OptimisticRealist]

31 minutes ago, Ryoutarou97 said:

Well, they can't make Ubisoft worse.

Ubisoft brought Rocksmith to my life...

[escape093]

2 minutes ago, OptimisticRealist said:

Ubisoft brought Rocksmith to my life...

And Vivendi brought The Simpsons: Hit and Run to mine.