The relationship between Ubisoft and Vivendi has been really contentiou sover the last few years. Staring in 2015, Vivendi has been attempting a takeover of the French game publisher and developer, with varying degrees of success. Ubisoft publicly came out against the attempts and made several deals and financial changes to thwart the attempted takeover.
As time went on, the reporting on the situation grew increasingly dire for Ubi. Many analysts predicted that this takeover was inevitable, as Vivendi slowly gained more traction by buying out more shares. One big buyout happened after E3 2016, where Vivendi mass-purchased millions of Ubisoft shares off the back of the gaming convention, seemingly out of spite and to just lower morale at their target.
Vivendi’s stake in Ubisoft was over 27% at one point, and it’s going down as of now. As of this week, the remaining stake amounted to 5.9%. The deal to halt the takeover hinges on a buyout of Vivendi-held shares by Ubisoft. The deal was completed with additional funding from Chinese mega-conglomerate Tencent, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Both parties are now “long-term investors,” according to Ubisoft. That deal amounted to €220 million ($249 million) in capital being gained by Vivendi.
As part of an agreement between the two companies, Vivendi previously agreed not to purchase anymore stock in Ubisoft for at least five years. The company reaffirmed this agreement in their press release for the selloff of stock this week.
