Ubisoft: Recently open to purchase offers, but initially remain independent

In the games industry things have been hot lately when it comes to takeovers of larger companies. Activision Blizzard and Bethesda are known to have ended up at Microsoft, while Sony secured Bungie in a smaller but still billion-euro deal. But what about Ubisoft?

In discussions with investors and shareholders, this question inevitably came up when Ubisoft announced the latest business figures. It became clear that if an offer to buy Ubisoft came in, the company would by no means reject it per se. And that can also be understood as a kind of reorientation.

Why? It wasn’t that long ago that Ubisoft was at the center of a real mud fight. Vivendi, which had already acquired Gameloft in such a way in 2008, tried to buy Ubisoft in a hostile takeover in 2015. Vivendi had acquired more and more shares on the open market at the time and tried to become the majority owner of Ubisoft – but the company had vehemently resisted this, and in the end it was successful.

According to CEO Yves Guillemot, the company is now in a very good position. You have very valuable assets and brands at a time when such intangibles are trading at prices never seen before. Therefore, if an offer to buy Ubisoft comes in, you would at least listen to this: “We have always made our decisions in the interests of our stakeholders, which are our players, employees and shareholders. Ubisoft can remain independent. We have the talent that industrial and financial resources and a large portfolio of strong brands. However, should there be an offer to buy us, the Board would of course look into this further in the interest of all our stakeholders,” said Guillemot.

CFO Frederick Duguet did not want to speculate further as to why such an offer had not already arrived in view of strong brands such as Assassin’s Creed. In view of the large companies that are now being bought up by the biggest heavyweights in the industry at insane prices, things could also become interesting for Ubisoft in the medium term.