Vivendi attempting hostile takeover of Ubisoft?

[ChowYunFats]

Has anyone else heard of this I thought this was just a rumor nothing else?

This is the link I read some of it from 

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/12/09/vivendi-owns-25-of-ubisoft-and-a-hostile-takeover-approaches/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=584c440a04d3015c5b59ca4a&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

I've stumbled on a couple stories about this, but not much more info than this.  I'm curious as to how this might affect Ubi.  

 

[ChowYunFats]

That's the scary part and I guess they had something to do with Blizzard at one time and now they are trying to take part owner ship or more of Ubi Soft 

 

[RimBlock]

I sometimes watch 'The Know' on youTube and it has had a chunk about this.  

The takeover failed up until this point but it was a real thing apparently.

 

[Oh. daesu]

The niceities failed. There is bad blood with the French brothers and Vivendi. There'll be a lot of positioning, they'll start romancing all the other shareholders to stay, maybe get a friendly company to invest instead, or a poison pill if they can devise one. 6 months of it.

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

From my understanding, Vivendi holds about 25% of the shares and keeps buying.  According to French law, once they hit 30% they have to make a purchase bid or start a hostile takeover (or I guess sell stock to get under 30%).  

I guess about a year ago Vivendi owned about 10% of the stock, so if they picked up 15% in 12 months, they could have the 5% they need in about 3-4 months if they keep this pace up.  

 

[ChowYunFats]

From my understanding, Vivendi holds about 25% of the shares and keeps buying.  According to French law, once they hit 30% they have to make a purchase bid or start a hostile takeover (or I guess sell stock to get under 30%).  

I guess about a year ago Vivendi owned about 10% of the stock, so if they picked up 15% in 12 months, they could have the 5% they need in about 3-4 months if they keep this pace up.  

I read that to and worries me just a little on how would it effect the up coming production of later titles by UBI Soft I mean I can not say anything bad just yet not knowing anything about them in general outside what I read 

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

I read that to and worries me just a little on how would it effect the up coming production of later titles by UBI Soft I mean I can not say anything bad just yet not knowing anything about them in general outside what I read 

This is my concern too.  A big media conglomerate could stifle creativity and turn Ubi into a canned game company like EA that puts out shit for the masses to blindly eats (see all of their sports games), with it's only concern being churning out games so they can separate gamers from their money. 

However, on the other side, the influx of resources could be something needed at Ubi to better develop and QA their games so we don't end up with more problems like many AC games and the shitstorm that came with the Division when it released. 

Until this either happens or it doesn't, it's just unknown how things will proceed. 

 

[quinch1199]

For example you could look at the likes of EA who gobble up smaller studios/developers/publishers (remembering Ubisoft is the publisher, Massive is the developer so its even unsure if this will effect Massive directly) and often spit them out or pretty much destroy them.

OR

Example of Disney taking over from Lucas Films for the Star Wars franchise. Whilst Force Awakens was a pretty blatant remake we can't say the way Disney have allowed the creativity to expand on the franchise isn't good. 

Personally my only experience with Vivendi is watching their crappy logo on poor quality VHS's ... lol!

 

[quinch1199]

Oh dear, Yannick must be pissed today! 

750k fine ... oooppssss!

Vivendi currently own over 22% of voting stock in Ubisoft as well, and now with the insider trading issue rearing its head...its not a great time to be Ubisoft.