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[Stranya]

Fuck's sake. I love Ubisoft games, and they've kept me going through some really tough years, including more than a dozen surgeries in the last two. Fucking Vivendi. If it were a company that cared about games and quality, then that's one thing, but Vivendi are the opposite of that.

 

[TissueBox]

Veni, vidi, Vivendi'd

At this rate, an early Q1 2017 acquisition seems set in stone.

 

[Gai Murakumo]

Wait it has gone up so soon. Hot damn at this pace in the next year they may be able to reach the takeover percentage.

 

[DieH@rd]

It's like they're downloading the company through UPlay.

 

[Splatt]

It's like they're downloading the company through UPlay.

Damn

A post worthy of being CEO Kaz Hirai tweet

 

[vaporeon]

I think Nintendo would have enough money, but as I recall Ubi is about twice the size of Ninty and they wouldn't want to grow the company that much, that fast. Plus, they don't seem especially keen on acquisitions so I doubt the entire idea would particularly appeal.

I don't think Phil Spencer could get approval for a couple of billion dollars for this kind of buyout, and Sony has worked hard to trim the fat in recent years, so I don't think they would want to add Ubi's 9000 employees to their payroll just after Kaz Hirai has worked so hard to turn the business around and make them profitable.

The other option I guess is one of the big three buying some shares in Ubi in order to allow the Guillemots + Nintendo (for example) to retain above 50% shares to ensure Vivendi cannot get control of the company. And then in exchange Ubi develops like 10 exclusives for that hardware manufacturer! Is that what 'white knighting' is? Again, I don't really see it happening as in theory none of the big three will lose much even if Vivendi take over, but it's more likely than an outright acquisition.

I'm definitely not suggesting Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft to acquire Ubisoft. That would be crazy lmao!
All they really need to do is purchase enough shares of Ubisoft to dilute the percentage Vivendi owns to prevent an inevitable hostile takeover. It's the kind of white-knighting that can have good outcome for both businesses. In the early 2000s, Square was in the red and Enix refused to go through with the merger. Sony swooped in and took a ~17% stake in Square to save their asses (fyi, this is not a buyout of any kind). The merger with Enix went through and we got PS2 exclusive games like Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts out of it. Win-win for both! Exceeeeept this case is kind of different...the big three would have to see Vivendi as a threat to video game industry to do something about it on their own, or Ubi themselves will have to plead to them for it, heh.

 

[Joni]

I'm definitely not suggesting Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft to acquire Ubisoft. That would be crazy lmao!
All they really need to do is purchase enough shares of Ubisoft to dilute the percentage Vivendi owns to prevent an inevitable hostile takeover. It's the kind of white-knighting that can have good outcome for both businesses. In the early 2000s, Square was in the red and Enix refused to go through with the merger. Sony swooped in and took a ~17% stake in Square to save their asses (fyi, this is not a buyout of any kind). The merger with Enix went through and we got PS2 exclusive games like Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts out of it. Win-win for both! Exceeeeept this case is kind of different...the big three would have to see Vivendi as a threat to video game industry to do something about it on their own, or Ubi themselves will have to plead to them for it, heh.

Company X would need to buy up enough stocks to ensure that Vivendi can't get enough stocks to push through an hostile takeover while ensuring they themselves aren't forced to do to the hostile takeover. In any case,that could have happened, had Ubisoft not forced EA out.

 

[Amir0x]

I havent purchased a Ubisoft title in years due to their awful anti-consumer behavior over the past decade, so it is hard to feel sorry for them. Maybe if they showed commitment to actually fixing themselves and orienting themselves for consumer benefit I'd feel more sympathetic.

Vivendi gonna be a hard pill to swallow for them.

 

[Kill3r7]

Depends on how many people would consider buying the hardware these games are exclusive too. Assassins Creed, Watch Dogs, BG2, Rayman exclusively on Switch or Scorpio could attract some people. And Ubisoft has some real good development teams (that obviously get to less time for their games).

What if I told you that more than half their games for their primary AAA franchises are sold on Sony consoles. I am not sure the cost of development for these games would justify the sales figures. AC alone has a massive team. We are talking about a Destiny like team of 500+ employees if not closer to 1000. That is insane. Good luck making money on those games.

Company X would need to buy up enough stocks to ensure that Vivendi can't get enough stocks to push through an hostile takeover while ensuring they themselves aren't forced to do to the hostile takeover. In any case,that could have happened, had Ubisoft not forced EA out.

Correct.

 

[thekiddfran]

Why is this a bad thing? Why are Ubisoft pushing back so much?

 

[Panthers]

Is Vivendi really bad? They owned Blizzard for a while, a company I always loved. I am Not too clear on any other involvement in gaming. They seem to mainly be involved in other media.

 

[wild wild rice]

Just leave Ancel alone, man.

 

[Sami+]

After how they treated Patrice Desilets I still just see this as karma tbh.

Bye Ubisoft I guess, I played and liked some of your old stuff.

 

[Chev]

Why is this a bad thing? Why are Ubisoft pushing back so much?

Because in such a takeover management will be the first group to be let go to avoid redundancies. I'm sure you can see how the current management would think it's a bad idea.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

Why is this a bad thing? Why are Ubisoft pushing back so much?

Is Vivendi really bad? They owned Blizzard for a while, a company I always loved. I am Not too clear on any other involvement in gaming. They seem to mainly be involved in other media.

Vivendi has been under new management for a bit. It's not the same company that owned Activision-Blizzard. This Vivendi is known for practicality destroying France's second biggest news channel.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

For fuck sakes, just when Ubisoft finally start to make a legit creative AAA game in For Honor....