Ubisoft has had a challenging year or more, losing almost half of its share value in 2024 due to, among other things, the disappointing performance of Star Wars Outlaws and the delay of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Reports indicate that now the founders of Tencent and Ubisoft, the Guillemots family, are considering buying out the publisher.
Report via Bloomberg cited “people familiar with the matter” as saying Tencent and Guillemot Brothers Ltd were considering their options. Both parties are currently minority shareholders in Ubisoft, with Tencent controlling approximately 9% of the shares and Guillemots owning approximately 20.5%.
Other minority shareholders have spoken out against Guillemots’ leadership in recent months, pressing the board to “take Ubisoft private or allow a sale to a strategic investor.”
Shareholder frustration had been building for some time, but peaked following a “weaker-than-expected” performance by Star Wars Outlaws. As a result, Ubisoft made the unusual decision to delay Assassin’s Creed Shadows, their biggest Q4 release, even though the game was ready for release, in favor of adding up-to-date features and story quests to enhance its reception once the game is available now now, next February.
Ubisoft shares rose about 33% following a Bloomberg News report that it was considering a buyout.
There have been constant rumors about someone buying Ubisoft for years, whether it was private equity sniffing around in 2022 when Tencent got involved or Vivendi’s long-running efforts to acquire the company in the 2010s. Guillemot has previously maintained that it would consider selling if someone offered; maybe now we’ll see if other shareholders will consider selling to him.
