The Guillemot family, the founder of Ubisoft, and a Tencent shareholder are reportedly considering joining forces to take the company private after several high-profile video game mishaps and a drop in its stock price.
Bloomberg reports that both sides are talking to advisers in an attempt to stabilize Ubisoft after the company’s shares have fallen 54% this year. The publication cautions that these preliminary talks may lead nowhere, and a buyout is not the only option being considered. Ubisoft declined to comment.
The Guillemot family, including Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, owns just over 20% of Ubisoft, and Tencent owns just over 9%. At the time of publication of this article, Ubisoft shares increased by as much as 26.33% after this news.
Ubisoft has had a terrible year with disappointing results from Call of Duty competitor XDefiant and most recently Star Wars Outlaws. It delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows to 2025 due to penniless sales of Outlaws, and its employees planned a strike for later this month.
In its recent note to investors, Guillemot acknowledged that the company’s “second quarter fell short of expectations” and announced the launch of “a review to further improve our execution.” He also addressed some of the cultural conversations taking place at the company recently, which have intensified around Star Wars Outlaws and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows game.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft has abandoned the fleeting exclusivity of the Epic Games Store for its games on PC and I went back to the first day of release on Steamwhich was clearly intended to boost flagging sales of its games.
Wesley is the UK news editor at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wy100@proton.me.
