Ubisoft has been doing what they can to fight off the hostile takeover from Vivendi, they even tried buying back their shares to own more of their own voting power. While Vivendi has been on track to offer Ubisoft a bid, it looks like Vivendi might decide to move elsewhere.
In an interview with Le Figar, Gameloft’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Roussel detailed that Vivendi wants a bigger presence in the games industry, but isn't "Ubisoft or nothing," however, they do see Ubisoft as the "most natural solution." According to Roussel, Vivendi is willing to pursue other companies as their pursuit of Ubisoft becomes more and more expensive.
The question is, who will Vivendi go after if their attempt to overtake Ubisoft goes south? Vivendi has already had a stake in Activision Blizzard, but Blizzard bought back their shares from Vivendi.
Vivendi began at owning 10% of Ubisoft's shares, but they have slowly been taking more and more. In February 2016 they jumped to 15%, then to 20% in June 2016. The multimedia company jumped to owning upwards of 22.8% of Ubisoft, with 20% of the voting rights in their hands. In November 2016, Vivendi made another leap to 24% of shares and 21% of voting rights. In December 2016, Vivendi owned 25.15% of the company and 22.92% of its voting rights and in April of this year, it was said that Vivendi would be nearing the 'second phase' of their takeover attempt.
