Ubisoft Says it Can Remain Independent, But Any Buyout Offer Would be Reviewed - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 April 2022 / 3,421 Views
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in an earnings call with investors today believes the company can remain independent, but will review any buyout offers.
"We have always taken decisions in the interest of our stakeholders, which are our employees, players and shareholders," said Guillemot via VideoGamesChronicle. "Ubisoft can remain independent: we have the talent, the financial scale, and a large portfolio of original IPs.
"Having said that, if there were an offer to buy us, the board of directors would of course review it in the interest of all stakeholders."
He added, "We have high-value assets, we have the scale to remain independent and create very meaningful value in the future, because we have scale in terms of our workforce, engineering, technology, IPs and engaged communities.
"That’s why we are able to serve so many platforms today with such high quality content… Of course we won’t speculate any more on any potential interest in buying Ubisoft."
Guillemot did say Ubisoft will continue to have access to all of those platforms because all the platforms need great content. If we are continuing to do great content like we do today, we will be able to access all of those platforms.
"If we look at Nintendo, we are the number one third-party publisher on it. Nintendo is interested in everything we do and [we are] even developing games with their brands, so the collaboration exists and it is very fruitful."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Anything else would be illegal. So....
for the right price everything is for sale!
If they are bought out by someone, can Nintendo get the Ubisoft Milan branch, please?
I don't want them to buy all of Ubisoft, that wouldn't be a good fit. They are too edgy, have too much baggage, are too politically motivated on social agendas for Nintendo's company culture, and just have a lot of IPs that don't feel fitting for Nintendo first party. But Ubisoft Milan is a wonderful team filled with delightful, passionate people that have proved themselves capable of making Nintendo-quality games by making Mario + Rabbids.
Nintendo could buy them up and let them operate as a separate entity almost.
A big multiplatform developer/publishing group would be beneficial in bringing more multiplats to Nintendo... Because while we all love the Switch... It would be amazing if we could get the latest FarCry, Assassins Creed, Tom Clancy.
Plus more technically impressive game engines (I.E. Snowdrop) and optimizations to go with it would benefit Nintendo greatly.
Nintendo makes amazing games, but their game engine technology does need work.
Oh shit, here we go again..
Didn't Ubisoft bought some of their own stock back just a couple year ago to prevent being acquired? Those billion$ dropping left and right sure are enticing I guess.
Of course it would. It is among the obligations of the board to review any purchase proposal and them submit to shareholders approval.
Meh...I care less about Ubisoft than I did Activision so whatevs
Nintendo is gonna buy them so them so they can get those Rabbids.
I mean they aren't doing so hot Stock value wise, and they too have been suffering sex scandals and other bad stuff, their games line-up in particular aren't setting the world on fire, though some are selling.
I can definitely see Ubi being bought out by someone in the future, and it's going to end up being down to Ubi just becoming another Activision and getting itself into trouble.
Sounds like Ubisoft is almost begging for Nintendo to take over.
Once the Activision deal goes through, I wouldn't be surprised if Ubisoft was MS next target.
The governments demeanor towards Microsoft will probably determine their future acquisitions strategy going forward. If that process is an arduous slog with the government imposing a number of strings attached to the sale, Microsoft might cool off for a while.
Ubisoft is a French company. The American government shouldn't care about them buying foreign companies. The French government may not like it, though.
Oh yeah I kind of worded my comment weirdly. I was actually referencing the ABK sale. If the ABK sale is an arduous slog with a lot of strings attached, I think Microsoft will be more reticent to get back out there and try to buy someone again so soon
Not really. For example both my company and the company that purchased us and the one they merged after were American companies. Still it needed approval from other countries as well.
And in this case Microsoft is an American company, so even when buying a French company USA would put it under scrutiny.
If an American company has the chance to buy a foreign company and get more profits coming into America, decreasing the trade deficit, and increasing the taxes the American government can collect from an American company, then the American government should be supportive of that.
I'm betting on Amazon scooping up Ubisoft. They got a crap ton of money and they're in major need of IP and studios. If they're really that serious about gaming. Luna is off to a slow start and Ubisoft already has games on the service. Ubisoft could then be fully integrated into Luna to give it a boost, and suddenly Amazon Games has a wealth of IP, studios, and developers.
So far Amazon has only been able to push out New World, which had great player counts at launch, then has since bombed due to the piss poor state the game is in. They published Lost Ark, but that's it as far as Amazon's gaming division goes.
Everyone wants the Bungie deal now. That publishing house is real mess right now; Beyond Good and Evil 2; Skull & Bones; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake; EFTs and Work place scandal. I don't like the current direction Ubisoft is going hopefully someone can right the ship.
I 100% doubt it. Phil Spencer will have his hands full with Activision Blizzard. That company is already a mess culturally and their pipeline. Ubisoft is basically the same but with twice the amount of employees than Activision Blizzard and Phil himself is already saying he isn't sure if he is equipped to take on Activision lol. That on top of regulators doubling down and Phil already managing Xbox Game Studios 14 other studios and Bethesda's 8 other studios. I have a feeling Phil will bring on a Co-CEO of Microsoft Gaming at some point to handle the workload.
I'm betting on Amazon being the ones to scoop up Ubisoft.
Phil isnt directly running those companies. They have their own managers and CEOs running them. Phil is just the overseer.
True, but still, decision making at Activision Blizzard will be going through Phil directly as he stated in the purchase announcement. As CEO of Microsoft's entire gaming division, it's up to him to steer everyone in the right direction. And the number of employees he's inheriting just doubled.
Thats because Activisions CEO is retiring. He will steer the ship until he finds a suitable replacement.
Perhaps, but that hasn't been publicly confirmed yet. So far it's just been speculation. If it's not that big of a deal then, why would Phil be saying he's not sure he's up to the task? He could've just said something simple like "we're gonna right this ship"
I think he is referring to buying such a huge company with alot of issues. His never done this before. His just being humble.
Phil is the manager, managing the managers.
If they ever buy ubisoft they are still far away from a monopoly. They are not even close
They are already over 10% with the ABK acquisition in terms of revenue.
Sure, but unit software sales aren't nearly as important the revenue and profit.
You got downvoted for truth-telling...
