Around two weeks ago, reports emerged that there were multiple private equity firms interested in acquiring Ubisoft. Ubisoft was described at the time as not having entered serious negotiations with the firms, nor if the takeover plans were particularly serious in the first place. However, a new report indicates that Ubisoft and CEO Yves Guillemot are very much taking the reports seriously. Guillemot is now said to be considering partnering with private equity in order to fully acquire Ubisoft for the Guillemot family.
The report comes from Dealreporter, which explained the Guillemot family's tentative plan to stave off takeovers by partnering with a private equity firm itself. The name of the private equity firm that the Guillemot family would partner with is not mentioned. However, it's explained that the effort would be done so that the Guillemot family could ensure it retained control of Ubisoft going forward.
As of right now, the Guillemot family currently holds nearly 16% of Ubisoft's shares, the most of any single party. The low percentage of shares has made Ubisoft vulnerable to hostile takeovers in the past. The decision to partner with a private equity backer would reinforce the Guillemot family's ability to counter takeover attempts if not secure an immediate control over the company. This was said to have been described as the Guillemot family's effort to maintain the "reign" of Ubisoft.
While the details of the report regarding the Guillemot family's effort to retain control of Ubisoft have yet to be officially confirmed, that hasn't stopped the market from responding. Ubisoft's stock value has climbed nearly 10% since the news broke. The Ubisoft stock jumped from around $9.11 to $9.84 since the report about an effort to defend Ubisoft from acquisition was shared online. Needless to say, there's a lot of interest surrounding the future of Ubisoft's ownership.
This isn't the first time that Ubisoft and the Guillemot family have had to stave off a takeover. Ubisoft faced a hostile takeover from Vivendi in the years prior to 2018, as the company slowly purchased significant amounts of stock. Vivendi ultimately came to an agreement to sell all of its Ubisoft ownership back to the publisher itself, which took on investment from other sources, including Tencent, to make the deal happen.
What happens next for Ubisoft isn't clear. As noted, the acquisition efforts by outside private investment firms was reported to be tentative, meaning that no further action may happen. The Guillemot family's response, may or may not be followed through on either. Regardless, with news of acquisitions being made seemingly month to month, Ubisoft appears to be one of the few gaming companies out there working to avoid such a future.
Source: Dealreporter (via SeekingAlpha)