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Vivendi now owns 25.15% of Ubisoft (nearing 30% hostile takeover point)
- Thread starter LordOfLore
- Start date
damn son
Maintenance
Member
jabberwocker
Banned
Um why doesnt UBI just move then? Transfer the company to where they would have a more favorable outcome?
Seeing Sound
Member
This is sad to hear. Rainbow Six Siege is the best shooter I've played since forever.
Hockeymac18
Member
I call it the Trump effect. "Any change is better than the current status quo!!".
Great strategy!
But Rayman..
Megawarrior
Member
....I was thinking goodbye rayman but this is even worse.
Pagusas
Elden Member
You voted for Trump didnt you?
icecold1983
Member
but constant fake trailers used to mislead customers
michaelius
Banned
Well if I'm not interested in 95% of Ubi catalogue and the 5% I do is stuff like Child of Light or Rayman which we haven't seen in years then what exactly do I risk losing ?
Constant?
Erin S Kittens
Member
DeuceGamer
Member
Why 30% is the takeover point? What if Ubisoft was able to get to 30% themselves, with the help of another company (I know this is highly unlikely but I'm trying to understand the 30% threshold here).
Dark_3nergy
Member
I am sorry =(. This must be pretty scary for them. After reading Charamiwa's post, I'm even more afraid for them now.
Holy crap I cannot believe that happened to that TV station.
The new management has bought a news channel and basically removed all news from it.
If you think what you got before were fake oh boy you're going to love the new trailers.
GrantDaNasty
Member
The Vivendi management at the time of the Acti-Blizz separation fucked up by letting them buy out of the merger, and Bollore has said this on numerous occasions. They're going for Ubi seemingly because the pricetag isn't too far out of reach and they'd have a sizable portfolio and brand recognition.
They're a publicly traded company. That would change nothing. And they can't become a private company because of course they'd need their shareholders to authorize it and why would they?
Triggerhappytel
Member
That's what happens when a company is on the stock market. Unless they have enough shares to retain control or some plan to execute to avoid a hostile takeover they're an open target for any big conglomerate.
TimeEffect
Member
I thought you guys said Vivendi was good for them 
Didn't they take over Activision and make games as service a better thing?
I am most concerned about Rainbow 6, which has been proving itself as the little train that could. I worry about a future for Siege if Vivendi doesn't think highly of it, or tries to alter in such a way to make it more accessible or ruin the nature of the game, or flat out kill Siege altogether for a different Rainbow 6 title
Didn't they take over Activision and make games as service a better thing?
I am most concerned about Rainbow 6, which has been proving itself as the little train that could. I worry about a future for Siege if Vivendi doesn't think highly of it, or tries to alter in such a way to make it more accessible or ruin the nature of the game, or flat out kill Siege altogether for a different Rainbow 6 title
I am sure they liked getting paid when they sold those shares. If you want to be a publicly traded company this is one of the real threats you have to be prepared to face. Maybe Yves and company should have kept a controlling number of shares.
icecold1983
Member
They just did it yet again with watch dogs 2
Exploratory
Banned
Watch Dogs 2 was generic? It felt like the opposite of generic. More than half my time in that game is platformimg and puzzle solving. How many open world games let you go almost entirely non lethal? Just saying I know you said your opinion won't change.
Militaratus
Member
So what happens if Vivendi reaches 29.99% ownership and keeps flip-flopping between 29.98 and 29.99? Will they get arrested for keep giving Ubisoft heart attacks?
The law simply says at this point someone really needs to put their cards on the table.
They'll probably beg Nintendo to fund it, after the takeover.I'll miss you, Ubisoft.
We're never going to see BG&E2, are we.
/s just in case
As a former employee of a company that Vivendi assimilated into its collective, our studio was closed down as part of our CEO's defense strategy.
I think I have a unique perspective on all this:
I think I have a unique perspective on all this:
They are all as bad as each other. Neither the Guillermot's nor the Vivendi higher ups give a flying shit about video games, its all one big pissing contest.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Nintendo should just pony up a couple of billion and buy a majority stake. They've always worked pretty well together and adding Ubi's portfolio as exclusives would give the Switch an immeasurable boost.
Shikamaru Ninja
任天å ã® å¿è
I don't get it, don't most companies protect themselves from such a contingency? It seems foolish for any big company that's publicly traded to just be taken over by any large conglomerate.
What stops Vivendi from just controlling shares to any random game developer on the market?
UBI Soft is TOO BIG. 5,000 employees and like 8 large game studios. Unless Nintendo had a 100+ million userbase again, that output wouldn't make sense for the smaller typical Nintendo audience.
See: Blizzard for how this is NOT the case.
Seeing how Ubisoft treats its creative people I don't think they would see much change. This is the company that fired desilets, then bought his game studio from thq, then fired him again.
Blizzard did quite well when Vivendi owned it from 1998 to 2008.
johnnydrama
Banned
Watch Dogs 2, Steep, Far Cry Primal, For Honor--all of those games look and play like they were revealed. Go spread misinformation elsewhere.
Vivendi then wasn't Vivendi now.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Equity capital.
Vivendi is billions in debt and back in 2013 (IIRC) was looking to suck Activision-Blizzard coffers dry just before Kotick and Co. Presented them with a buy out. The suits at Vivendi ended up viewing taking that deal as a mistake so they will take over Ubisoft do what they planned on doing with Activision-Blizzard and probably kill the company in the process while funneling everything of value out of it.
Then Blizzard can't be used as an example for showing what would go wrong either. Bollore also briefly owned Blizzard.
Linkstrikesback
Member
Maybe I don't understand business well but...
How the heck is ubisoft at risk from being bought out by a company billions in debt?
Could just take the money when the time comes and if they are passionate about games, start over. It sucks for Ubisoft employees if it goes tits up but some of rich folk could build up again and hire ex employees. I know it would be a hard road but if it's inevitable, look to the future.
Maybe Valve could partner with them, drop uPlay, help with VR content etc.
Maybe Valve could partner with them, drop uPlay, help with VR content etc.
The bosses don't make games and they never did.
In debt but asset strong so can still throw their weight around.
I'm pretty sure they've already gotten rid of those debts.
IIRC, Vivendi has something to the tune of $10Billion in liquid assets. So I think they can acquire Ubi pretty easily. Alternatively, they must have a line of credit.
No. Never. After the years of half ass and bad games that Ubi$hit purposely released on Nintendo platforms, Ubishard is getting what it deserve.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Credit, as long as they can make their payments they're fine. They currently have, at least from my brief searching, a BBB credit rating which AFAIK is considered lower medium-grade. Using Ubisoft and its assets to pay off and maybe unload a good chunk of their debt would help improve that rating so then get more credit and continue playing the shell game.