It appears that a hostile takeover of Ubisoft by media giant Vivendi won’t be happening within the next six months.
A report by Reuters suggests that Vivendi has decided against an attempt due to its own low third-quarter earnings, coupled with Ubisoft’s recent successes. The game publisher’s stock is up 96% since January, beating sales targets thanks to an investment in the Nintendo Switch and titles like Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
Vivendi will remain as a 26% shareholder in the game publisher; anything more than 30%, by French law, means Vivendi would be forced to begin proceedings to take a controlling stake in the company. At the moment, despite an entitlement for 22% of Ubisoft’s voting rights, Vivendi has declined representation on the company’s board./
The news comes as Ubisoft has announced the opening of a new Berlin studio, set to assist with the development of Far Cry 5.
“We are thrilled to be opening the doors to Ubisoft Berlin, and working on the Far Cry series together with other Ubisoft teams,” said Istvan Tajnay, Studio Manager, Ubisoft Berlin.
“In the first year, we will build a core team of around 50 developers drawing on all areas of expertise. We are currently recruiting for these positions and the reception so far is overwhelmingly positive and candidates are of a very high calibre.”
Good news for Ubisoft all around, it seems.
Fears of a Vivendi takeover of Ubisoft began back in 2016.
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