Ubisoft founder buys 3.5% of the company for £120 million to prevent hostile take-over by Vivendi Games. Vivendi already holds 20% of Ubisoft. Now Ubisoft founder owns 12.5% of the company. Vivendi own other companies such as Gameloft of which they own 56%. However, Ubisoft founder is lobbying shareholders to prevent them from selling shares to Vivendi.
Ubisoft founder buys 3.5% of the company in a bid to stop Vivendi from holding majority shares
The Guillemot family has now increased its shares by 4 million. The chunk is worth about 144 million euros ($161 million) based on the latest close. The family held 9 percent of Ubisoft’s capital and 15 percent of the voting rights as of July. 29 shareholders of Ubisoft met yesterday to lobby against Vivendi. Guillemot brothers sold their stake in Gameloft to Vivendi and are now using that to boost their ownership of Ubisoft.
Furthermore, Vivendi claims that it isn’t thinking of taking over the completely yet and will see how it plays out in the next six months. The music, film and TV conglomerate has said it wants “fruitful cooperation” with Ubisoft. Vivendi can still make proposals during board meetings.
Vivendi is a company primarily focused on digital entertainment. It owns the French TV channel and movie producer Canal+ Group, as well as music world leader Universal Music Group. On 25 July 2013, Vivendi asset Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion, dropping the shareholder from a 63% stake to 11.8% by the end of the deal in September, ending Vivendi’s majority ownership of Activision Blizzard. (Wikipedia)
Ubisoft shares have more than doubled overt he past year. They now have a market value of about 4.2 billion euros. Vivendi fell about 0.1% o 17.99 euros. The on-going race between Vivendi and Guilemot brothers shows no signs of finishing yet.
We’ll keep you updated with more news regarding Ubisoft founder and Vivendi. Stay tuned to MobiPicker.