The French multimedia company, Vivendi, has begun making moves to take control of the game developer and publisher behind the Assassin's Creed series, Ubisoft. Vivendi went from having around a 10% stake in Ubisoft to 15% in the recent months.
According to a report from The Globe and Mail, Ubisoft is doing everything within their power to keep Vivendi at bay, calling the situation a 'hostile' takeover by Vivendi.
Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, started Ubisoft along with his four brothers more than 30 years ago and he isn't looking to give it up to Vivendi anytime soon. With more than 3,000 Ubisoft jobs at stake, Guillemot has called a meeting with dozens of potential investors.
“We want to increase the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital,” saidGuillemot before continuing on to say that he is approaching investors with longer-term investment horizons. “We feel it’s a good defence.”
Vivendi, who once owned a fair percentage of Activision Blizzard (Blizzard bought their way out of that), has even gone as far as making an unsolicited offer to Gameloft SE, a company owned by one of the Guillemot brothers. Vivendi has approached one of the co-founders with 500-million euros ($750-million) and in doing so making it seem as though Vivendi is looking to buy their way into outvoting the Ubisoft CEO.
Yves Guillemot believes that the best way to protect their company, including all of their assets, is to stay independent.
