The French multimedia company, Vivendi, has made another move at taking over the game developer and publisher of games like Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs, Ubisoft. Vivendi has gone from owning 18% of Ubisoft shares to owning 20.1%.
Vivendi has already pulled off a hostile takeover of Gameloft, a sister publisher to Ubisoft formerly owned by Michel Guillemot, brother of Yves, CEO of Ubisoft. Gameloft is a small player in the game industry and it seems quite clear that Vivendi has got their sights aimed for Ubisoft.
Ubisoft is currently fighting to keep the imminent hostile takeover at bay, something that seems like a battle they will lose. Just a few days after E3 ended Vivendi acquired more shares in Ubisoft and with their 20.1% they have also requested seats on Ubisoft's board, they also have the intention to buy more shares but according to Bloomberg they have no intentions of outright buying Ubisoft for now.
"[Vivendi]aims to build 'a fruitful cooperation' with Ubisoft and isn’t considering a public tender offer for the game maker, nor acquiring the control for the next six months."
Ubisoft is safe for at least another six months since according to VG247 the French law dictates that "the buyer must tender a public offer" when they reach 30% of the shares, something Vivendi themselves said wouldn't happen for another six months at least.
Ubisoft will stay the same for another six months, what happens after that is just speculation but it sure looks like Vivendi will get to have their way with Ubisoft.
