Vivendi sells its entire stake in Ubisoft The Guillemot family regains control of the publisher, with Tencent taking a 5 per cent stake

Matthew Handrahan Editor-in-Chief Tuesday 20th March 2018 Share this article Share

Companies in this article Ubisoft Vivendi

Vivendi has sold its entire stake in Ubisoft, marking the end of what was widely believed to be an attempt at a hostile takeover of the French publisher.

Vivendi's stake represented 27.3 per cent of Ubisoft's capital, or 30.5 million shares in the company. The main buyer of the shares was Guillemot Brothers SE, which puts the future of the company back in the hands of its original founders after a long period of uncertainty.

However, just over 8 per cent of Ubisoft has been acquired by two new investors: the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which bought 3.4 per cent of the company, and Tencent, which purchased 5 per cent. The price of all shares was €66.

"The evolution in our shareholding is great news for Ubisoft," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in a statment. "It was made possible thanks to the outstanding execution of our strategy and the decisive support of Ubisoft talents, players and shareholders. I would like to warmly thank them all.

"The investment from new long-term shareholders in Ubisoft demonstrates their trust in our future value creation potential, and Ubisoft`s share buy-back will be accretive to all shareholders. Finally, the new strategic partnership agreement we signed will enable Ubisoft to accelerate its development in China in the coming years and fully leverage a market with great potential."

As part of the transaction, Vivendi has agreed to not buy any shares in Ubisoft for five years.