If Michel Guillemot steps down, Bloomberg said, he’ll do so to regroup with his brother, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, along with the rest of the clan to ensure Ubisoft’s financial future.
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Popular mobile game publisher Gameloft, known for its popular mobile game franchises such as Asphalt, Modern Combat, and Dungeon Hunter, is now majority controlled by media corporation Vivendi, following an offer for shares and a letter to Gameloft and its employees months ago about a takeover of the company to help it grow and expand with further development.
Michel Guillemot intends to quit Gameloft after its shareholders backed the hostile takeover at the hands of Vivendi. Last fall, Vivendi bought a 10.39 percent stake in Ubi, and then purchased another 7.38 percent stake in April.
Vivendi has indeed garnered the support of the majority of Gameloft’s shareholders, namely Amber Capital and CIC, after making a bid at €8 (RM36.70) per share on May 27. Currently, the Guillemots control 15 percent of the votes in Ubisoft. Both Gameloft and Ubisoft are owned by the Guillemot brothers. The focus and the battle are now clearly on Ubisoft.
If such a plan is successful, it would mark one of the biggest games company takeovers in history.
The Guillemot family failed in a court bid to block Vivendi’s tender offer for Gameloft, leaving them with few options fend off Vivendi’s advances.
Yves Guillemot previously vowed that Ubisoft will “fight to preserve our independence” and described Vivendi’s investment in the company as unwanted.
“You work for a company that is already one of the most renowned and creative in the mobile games segment worldwide”, the letter stated. That leads to two obvious questions: Why does Vivendi want back into the business it just got out of (and with a lesser player), and can an it do any better this time-especially if it ends up with a Ubisoft lacking much of its top talent?
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“We are going in to a very competitive part of the console cycle and despite Ubisoft’s efforts to expand like Activision and EA have, the company is still heavily dependent on hits”, Christine Arrington of IHS Technology told Eurogamer.
