The talks surrounding a potential buyout at Ubisoft continue to pick up steam. After reports first surfaced in October of a buyout to take Ubisoft private, the Guillemot family have continued to have discussions with potential partners.
In a new report by Reuters, Ubisoft’s owners have continued discussions with Tencent and other investors regarding a buyout of one of the world’s largest game studios. According to the report, the Guillemot family has made it known to potential buyers that it wants to retain control of the company.
It was added that Tencent hasn’t decided whether to increase its in the company or not. However, part of talks with the Chinese company involve preventing “any potential hostile takeover of Ubisoft by other investor.”
RELATED: EXCLUSIVE – Yves Guillemot’s Internal Memo About XDefiant Closure and The Future of Ubisoft
Tencent is the second-largest stockholder in Ubisoft, owning 10% of the company. A reason for a delay in a decision stems from the company wanting a “greater say on future board decisions including cash flow distribution”. The report claims that the Guillemot family hasn’t agreed to that provision.
In response to the report, an Ubisoft spokesperson told Reuters, “We remain committed to making decisions in the best interests of all of our stakeholders. In this context, as we have already indicated, the Company is also reviewing all its strategic options.”
Tencent declined to comment on the report.
When the latest update first broke, stock trading for the company was temporarily suspended. However, upon resuming, share prices jumped 13% as of publishing.
Recently, Ubisoft announced the cancellation of its free-to-play Call of Duty competitor XDefiant. Insider Gaming was the first to report on the game’s shutdown.
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Tencent should pass unless it doesn’t affect them too bad. They should push to buy out Tom Sweeney with Epic Games not really go after Ubisoft the company really isn’t worth anything they don’t really have much.
Tencent will pass the problem is the Guillemot family wants to remain control and look how bad a job they’ve done. They got lucky in the beginning but now they’ve made a mess and their egos got the best of them. The people who made their better selling games have all left now. Ubisoft franchises also aren’t that big. The better move might be talk with EA about a merger and the Guillemot’s get a stake in the new combined company. EA could use more IP and that’s all Ubisoft really is IP and not really big name IP. The Tom Clancy franchise might be better with devs like Respawn and DICE at the helm.