Vivendi Agree To Stop Trying To Buy Ubisoft, Selling All Of Their Shares

It’s no secret that Ubisoft frigging hated the predatory share purchases French media conglomerate Vivendi were making of the last few years, fearing for their independence as a publisher and taking some fairly robust measures to try and protect themselves.

In the end, it’s paid off as Vivendi have reached an agreement to withdraw and sell all of their share capital in the company. They’d accrued 27.3% of Ubisoft’s share capital, with the 30% mark being the point at which French law would force them to make a takeover bid, but they will now sell at €66 per share.

That amounts to a pretty huge amount of money, and so it’s being handled in as smooth a way as possible. A share buy-back by Ubisoft will target some of these shares, while Guillemot Brothers SE will acquire some more and there’s some other investors coming on board. Chinese publisher Tencent are a major investor here, making a long term strategic partnership with Ubisoft at the same time.

My favourite part of this announcement is that Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan are also buying some of the shares, meaning that school teachers’ pensions will be partially dependent on the kids they teach playing video games. Sounds to me like they have a vested interest in not setting quite as much homework…

Source: press release

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