Ubisoft is currently courting potential investors across Montreal, Toronto and London in order to fend off a potentially hostile takeover from French conglomerate, Vivendi.
The Globe and Mail is reporting that CEO Yves Guillemot has been conducting meetings across the globe in search of backers, with more recent reports revealing that the video game mega-publisher is now turning to its Canadian development network for assistance.
Vivendi first staked a claim for Ubisoft in October of 2015, when it bought 6.6 percent of shares. That portion increased to 10.39 percent later the same month in a move Guillemot described as “unsolicited and unwelcome.” In response, Vivendi claimed the plan was “part of a strategic vision of operational convergence between Vivendi’s content and platforms on one hand and the Ubisoft and Gameloft productions in video games on the other.”
Vivendi’s influence on Ubisoft’s gaming enterprise continued to grow, and the latest development involved the former staking a claim for 30 per cent of Gameloft, an internal company run by Guillemot and his brothers.
Under French law, 30 percent is enough to trigger a mandatory takeover bid, leading Guillemot and Ubisoft to search for a means of increasing “the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital. We feel it’s a good defence.”
It’s an event that has even attracted the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who toured Ubisoft’s Montreal campus. For now, the publisher is seeking investors, and we’ll keep you updated as this story develops.
[Sources: GamesIndustry.biz, Gamasutra, The Globe & Mail]
