Recently, due to the impact of acquisition rumors, Ubisoft's stock price has risen sharply. However, after the acquisition war with Vivendi, the Guillemot family, the founder family of Ubisoft, has no intention of giving up control of Ubisoft. Sources say the Guillemot family is currently considering working with a private equity firm to acquire Ubisoft shares to block the offer. As a result of this news, Ubisoft shares are up another 10%.
According to Dearporter, the Guillemot family currently owns 15.9 percent of the shares and 22.3 percent of the common stock, and in order to maintain operational control over Ubisoft, the Guillemot family plans to work with a private equity firm to buy Ubisoft's listed shares to block the offer. Ubisoft officials also said that there are no actual negotiations with potential acquirers at present, and major shareholders have not disclosed their intentions to acquire.
2021 can be said to be a record-breaking year for mergers and acquisitions in the gaming industry, reaching more than $85 billion after Microsoft's plan to acquire Activision Blizzard. This year, european development studios including Bungie and SE have also changed hands. Ubisoft's reputation in recent years has been affected by the company's harassment storm, while the weakness of Tom Clancy's new games and the postponement of many games have reduced shareholders' hopes for Ubisoft, which naturally led to a new acquisition storm. Of course, for players, what they want to see is that Ubisoft can come out of the industrial assembly line and make a game that is really different.