Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has met with the premier of Quebec. The video game publisher has also met with private investors in both Montreal and Toronto in an effort to find the required investment to remain independent.
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And with this, gamers everywhere are beginning to wonder if a Vivendi takeover would be helpful – Ubisoft is already at odds with many gamers, especially PC gamers, who’ve felt they’ve been wronged by the company, either with buggy launch titles, obtrusive DRM schemes, or some other limitations PC gamers don’t ordinarily expect.
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”. But as time passes, it looks more and more likely that Vincent Bolloré, Chairman of Vivendi, will get his way and absorb Ubisoft into his mammoth media conglomerate.
Vivendi has had a odd relationship with the video game industry over the years.
Yves Guillemot believes that the best way to protect their company, including all of their assets, is to stay independent. The move is one sided, with Ubisoft publicly calling it “unwelcome”. Interestingly it seems that Vivendi has their eyes set on another gaming company in the form of Gameloft. The report states that Vivendi made an unsolicited takeover offer of $750 million for Gameloft, a company which is run by Guillemot’s brothers.
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Vivendi Games later merged with Activision Inc in 2007 to create game publishing giant Activision Blizzard Inc, which is today one of the largest publishers in the industry. Ubisoft’s most recently release is Far Cry Primal.
