Ubisoft Fighting Hostile Takeover

The Globe and Mail reports that Ubisoft is in discussions with financiers in an attempt to fend off what's described as a hostile takeover by Vivendi, owners of a 15% stake in the company. Ubisoft founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, confirmed meets are taking place with potential investors in Montreal and Toronto to help the Guillemot's retain control of the company, and this blurb explains what's going on, implying local jobs may be on the line:
Mr. Guillemot and his four brothers started Ubisoft in France’s Brittany region and own a minority stake, expanding it more than 30 years to become one of the world’s top five video game publishers. They’re trying to push away Vivendi and its billionaire chairman, Vincent Bolloré, who has amassed a 15-per-cent stake in Ubisoft in recent months and made an unsolicited takeover offer worth some 500-million euros ($750-million) for another Guillemot brothers-run gaming company, Gameloft SE.

The hostile bid on Gameloft is the first step in Vivendi’s larger ploy to force talks with the Guillemot family and take over Ubisoft, analysts at European investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co. have said.

At stake are more than 3,000 Ubisoft jobs in Montreal, Quebec, Toronto and Halifax, and hundreds of millions in capital invested since the company opened its first studio in Canada in 1997. Quebec has the most to lose, with Ubisoft representing a pillar of its multimedia industry.

Although it’s unlikely Vivendi would shut down Ubisoft’s Canadian studios outright, the assets would be better protected if Ubisoft remained independent, Mr. Guillemot told The Globe and Mail on Thursday. Ubisoft enjoys a decision-making and operational agility that it wouldn’t have under Vivendi, and can forge better partnerships with global media players such as Warner Bros. instead of being forced to work with Vivendi’s properties, the CEO said.
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Re: Ubisoft Fighting Hostile Takeover
Feb 26, 2016, 09:55
6.
Re: Ubisoft Fighting Hostile Takeover Feb 26, 2016, 09:55
Feb 26, 2016, 09:55
 
Creston wrote on Feb 26, 2016, 09:48:
Don't want to be a target for a hostile takeover? Don't take your company public.

You went public, you ran the risk. Don't start crying about it now.


It's not as if Ubi will get better with Vivendi at the helm, but hell, they probably wouldn't get much worse either, so whatever. If Quebec is worried about its jobs, let them buy the company.

I have to agree with you Creston, you play the game expect the get overthrown.

The market is not a fair play ground and any investor looking to ruin a company and take its profits will do so.

A great movie or movies to watch are these. Other People's Money. great movie. And Wall street.

This is how the game is played. And I never understood the need for any publisher to take a gaming company public. Too much risk and not enough gain.

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Now integrated into Steams NWN: Enhanced Edition

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