Private equity firms can start circling Ubisoft, Bloomberg report Friday. Negotiations are early, but include interest from companies like Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co. Even if it’s not private equity, current and former Ubisoft developers Kotaku spoke to in recent months believes the company will eventually sell to someone amid a falling share price and ongoing production struggles.
Bloomberg reported that Blackstone and KKR & Co., the two largest private equity firms in the world, had “researched the French business” and had a “preliminary interest” in Ubisoft, but the company still has not entered into “any serious negotiations with potential acquirers. ”
Based on KotakuThe sources said that Ubisoft has worked closely with a number of outside consulting firms in recent years to examine different parts of its business. While companies will do this to become more profitable and prepare for the future, sources Kotaku told hint that it’s a sign Ubisoft is trying to clean up its books for potential sales.
On a wave of major game acquisitions, recent including Grand Theft Auto Publisher Take-Two buy ZyngaSony buy Bungieand Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to absorb Activision Blizzard, it seems like a game of eat or be eaten for those who stay. EA CEO Andrew Wilson said as much during an earnings call earlier this year in which he placed publisher FIFA on the “big fish looking to eat other fish” camp.
Ubisoft is tougher on its survival strategy. When asked during the most recent earnings call why the French publisher doesn’t appear to have received any interest in bids, Chief Financial Officer Frédérick Duguet said he wouldn’t speculate on why there isn’t. no offer was made, before being modified by CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot. The company, Guillemot asserts, neither confirm nor deny “If” potential buyers approached it.
If someone wants to buy Ubisoft, they will likely get it at a huge discount. Stocks over $110 a share in July 2018. Now it’s in $41. But they still need to get through to the Guillemot family, which is now estimated to own 15% of the business with a market capitalization of just under $5 billion.
The famous Yves Guillemot CEO against a hostile takeover attempt of French media group Vivendi after securing funding from Tencent and others in 2018. But some current and former sources in the company believe the 35-year veteran of the video game industry has may be looking for an exit strategy.
They point in the passing of son Charlie Guillemot last year resulting in no relatives left to take over the family business. Ubisoft was also attacked by a The wave of attrition is taking place among its high-profile talents. It continues to grapple with the aftermath of a workplace accounting for sexual misconduct kicks off summer 2020. And some of its biggest projects continue to face upheaval, delays, or get stuck in development hell.
As Bloomberg reported in FebruaryUbisoft has decided to make one of the Assassin’s Creed ValhallaThe DLC is planned as a standalone stopgap game to help patch holes in its release schedule over the next 18 months. In the meantime, next Cry away, Ghost scoutand official Assassin’s Creed the game is still further away than Ubisoft had previously planned, according to three sources familiar with their development.
When asked for comment, a Ubisoft spokesperson sent Kotaku following statement:
We do not comment on rumors or speculation. Ubisoft has unprecedented creative and production capacity, with over 20,000 talented people collaborating across our global studios on game development. Thanks to them and their long-term approach and creative risk-taking, we’ve built some of the strongest exclusivity brands in the industry and have many promising new brands and projects in the future. . We also have the deepest and most diversified portfolio in the industry, cutting-edge services and technologies, and a large and growing community of engaged players. We are therefore ideally positioned to take advantage of the rapidly evolving industry and the platform opportunities that are emerging right now.
Edit: 4/23/22, 1:51 p.m.: An earlier version of this post misrepresented the Ubisoft stock ticker.
