Ubisoft CEO open to a merger – but not with Vivendi

[themaniac]

Quote

The CEO of Ubisoft said he's confident the French videogame publisher will be able to fend off a move by Vivendi to obtain a seat on the company's board of directors. However, he says, the company is exploring other options – just in case it can't.

 

Vivendi, for the past eight months, has steadily been buying shares of Ubisoft – raising its stake to 17.7 percent. (The founders own just 9 percent of shares and hold 16 percent of the voting rights.) This comes on the heels of Vivendi's hostile takeover of Gameloft, a mobile game company that was founded by the same brothers.

 

"We have Plan A and Plan B," said Yves Guillemot, co-founder, chairman and CEO at Ubisoft. "Plan A is to remain independent. Plan B is going with another group, either in the game industry or with a technology or other types of company. Those are the two options at this point and they are both still open."

 

So apparently Ubisoft is open to a merger with someone except for Vivendi.

 

I honestly want Ubisoft to stay independent so i hope they manage to stay independent

 

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/13/ubisoft-ceo-open-to-a-merger--but-not-with-vivendi.html

 

this is my first thread in Tech news and reviews so if theres anything i should add or change do tell me, and if this was posted earlier go ahead and merge it or lock it

[rattacko123]

17 minutes ago, themaniac said:

merge it or lock it

ayy lmao

[Bouzoo]

It would be funny if they decided instead to go with, let's say, EA. 

[Sky Daddy]

30 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

It would be funny if they decided instead to go with, let's say, EA. 

i'd much rather use origin over uplay, i'd be okay with this

 

on the other hand, ubisoft has not recently released anything i'm remotely interested in

[Bouzoo]

57 minutes ago, Sky Daddy said:

i'd much rather use origin over uplay, i'd be okay with this

 

on the other hand, ubisoft has not recently released anything i'm remotely interested in

Sure, actually I think Origin is the best platform out of the available ones, but I was talking in general. 

[Beskamir]

6 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

Sure, actually I think Origin is the best platform out of the available ones, but I was talking in general. 

I disagree. Origin isn't as bad as people make it out to be but GOG is better for the consumer.

 

As for the OP, Ubisoft + EA doesn't sound that bad actually... At least as long as Ubisoft listens to EA since Ubisoft is kind of the EA that people hated a few years ago.

[ShadowCaptain]

Valve should buy them

[Bouzoo]

1 hour ago, ElfFriend said:

I disagree. Origin isn't as bad as people make it out to be but GOG is better for the consumer.

 

As for the OP, Ubisoft + EA doesn't sound that bad actually... At least as long as Ubisoft listens to EA since Ubisoft is kind of the EA that people hated a few years ago.

You mean listens to EA the same as they sacrificed a lot of content in Battlefront just so they can publish it before the movie? I still think EA is worse atm than Ubi, my personal opinion. I don't hate any publisher, it's more of which I like less. EA owns more IPs that I like than Ubi, but that doesn't help. 

Anyhow, stsrting to derail the thread. 

[Trik'Stari]

A breakup, with the people at the very top being fired and banned from the industry, would be much better for everyone involved.

[AlTech]

3 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

It would be funny if they decided instead to go with, let's say, EA. 

I have a feeling it's a personal vendetta, They did this to Gameloft and Gameloft is owned by the brother of the owner of Ubisoft.

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, ShadowCaptain said:

Valve should buy them

Valve gave up making games when they saw how much they could make from hats. 

[ShadowCaptain]

3 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Valve gave up making games when they saw how much they could make from hats. 

Ubisoft would still be making the games, they just get bought by valve and are distributed over steam and Uplay can go eat shit

 

 

[dimitriianghelov]

40 minutes ago, ShadowCaptain said:

Ubisoft would still be making the games, they just get bought by valve and are distributed over steam and Uplay can go eat shit

 

 

 

valve doesn't have the money, hell they can't even fund their VR games...

[ShadowCaptain]

2 minutes ago, dimitriianghelov said:

 

valve doesn't have the money, hell they can't even fund their VR games...

I was joking tbh haha i would never expect valve to buy them

[Bouzoo]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

I have a feeling it's a personal vendetta, They did this to Gameloft and Gameloft is owned by the brother of the owner of Ubisoft.

I wouldn't say so, Yves was looking at investors which would help them fend off Vivendi, he was even talking with the canadian government which shows how far he would go. When Vivendi first bought shares he called the purchase "unsolicited and unwelcome" which also shows what he thinks of Vivendi. If he can get a merger with another company, a company he approves, that is the lesser of two evils and a gamble he's willing to take. Better than Vivendi owning 51% of Ubi and calling all shots. Ubi would loose their autonomy which Is really bad. At least in merger they would still have a lot of key functions and much, much more freedom. 

Imagine if Vivendi already owned them and said no to, let's say,  AC II, Far Cry 3, PoP: Warrior Within or Splinter Cell 3 because they have the final word. That's what he is trying to avoid.

[M4st4M1nd]

Somebody needs to buy them out, fire all the staff and turn it around. They've been turning out shit tier games for too long now.

[ShadowCaptain]

13 minutes ago, M4st4M1nd said:

Somebody needs to buy them out, fire all the staff and turn it around. They've been turning out shit tier games for too long now.

With Ubisoft, I dont think its the programmers/designers etc, as honestly I think they do a great job, the problem is, the Authorities at the top, who force the developers to rush projects, force out unwanted sequels and generally just fuck it all up

I mean I feel like its a talented team, being made to do poor work to make the high ups a quick buck

[Lehti]

5 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

It would be funny if they decided instead to go with, let's say, EA. 

It would be both frightening and ironic. Frightening because EA isn't exactly the best place to work in or the most honest publisher out there, ironic because EA once actually owned a 20% stake in Ubisoft, but soon backpedaled because Guillemot saw that as an hostile move that could precede a complete takeover.

[RagnarokDel]

4 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

Sure, actually I think Origin is the best platform out of the available ones, but I was talking in general. 

Steam is definately the best platform but their app sucks dick

2 hours ago, ShadowCaptain said:

Ubisoft would still be making the games, they just get bought by valve and are distributed over steam and Uplay can go eat shit

 

 

I dont think Valve has the money to buy Ubisoft. Ubisoft is much bigger then Valve on almost any scale. The only place where Valve is bigger is the Steam platform vs Uplay. Ubisoft sells millions of game copies every year at $60 a pop, not $3 on sale every 2 weeks.

 

 

[cesrai]

4 hours ago, ShadowCaptain said:

Valve should buy them

Nope nope nope

 

13 minutes ago, RagnarokDel said:

Steam is definately the best platform but their app sucks dick

I dont think Valve has the money to buy Ubisoft. Ubisoft is much bigger then Valve on almost any scale. The only place where Valve is bigger is the Steam platform vs Uplay. Ubisoft sells millions of game copies every year at $60 a pop, not $3 on sale every 2 weeks.

 

 

Skins skins even more skins.

 

 

[suicidalfranco]

i hope they get bought by vivendi so that they have to eat a huge bag of d every day, for the rest of their lives 

[ShadowCaptain]

31 minutes ago, cesrai said:

Nope nope nope

 

Skins skins even more skins.

 

 

I was joking dude, I dont want valve to buy them haha

[OptimisticRealist]

AS LONG AS THEY KEEP MAKING ROCKSMITH GAMES and DLC for it,

 

I am fine.

[Humbug]

5 hours ago, RagnarokDel said:

Steam is definately the best platform but their app sucks dick

I dont think Valve has the money to buy Ubisoft. Ubisoft is much bigger then Valve on almost any scale. The only place where Valve is bigger is the Steam platform vs Uplay. Ubisoft sells millions of game copies every year at $60 a pop, not $3 on sale every 2 weeks.

Ubisoft is way bigger than Valve in terms of number of employees, offices etc, and they are clearly much more productive when it comes to new game development.

 

But in terms of cashflow Valve is crazy loaded. They get upto 30% on steam transactions and you can't understate how massive that is. Basically the majority of successful PC games make Valve richer. Not just the stuff that they make.

 

7 hours ago, dimitriianghelov said:

 

valve doesn't have the money, hell they can't even fund their VR games...

 We’re trying to do everything we can for them (VR devs). We’re funding development as well, I know HTC is as well. You couldn’t guess who we are as we don’t think they should be exclusive to our hardware ... - Chet Faliszek, Vavle

http://www.roadtovr.com/valves-chet-faliszek-on-htc-vive-pre-content-showcase-surprises-and-ninja-cats/

 

[PlayStation 2]

9 hours ago, ShadowCaptain said:

Valve should buy them

The fuck would Valve do? Show them how to implement Chromium in a broken fashion to their interface?