Image: Ubisoft
Tencent and Ubisoft’s founding Guillemot family are looking to stabilise Ubisoft after its shares fall.
A buyout of French video game publisher Ubisoft Entertainment is reportedly being considered by the Guillemots, the company's founding family, and Chinese conglomerate Tencent, according to a recent report from Bloomberg.
This comes after the game publisher’s shares fell by roughly 40% this year following the delayed release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws. Now, Tencent and the Guillemot family want to make Ubisoft a private enterprise.
Ubisoft might go private as Tencent and founding family consider buyout
Tencent and Ubisoft’s founding Guillemot family are reportedly exploring ways to stabilise Ubisoft amid a tumultuous year for the game publisher, including teaming up for a buyout to take the company private. Ubisoft’s shares have reportedly fallen by around 40% this year, and the company as a whole has lost more than half of its market value.
After the announcement that Tencent and the Guillemot family were considering a company buyout however, Ubisoft’s shares skyrocketed by 33% last week.
According to Bloomberg, these considerations are “at an early stage and there’s no certainty they will lead to a transaction.” Tencent and the Guillemot family are also weighing all of their their options at the moment, so a buyout isn’t guaranteed. That being said, it’s clear that something needs to be done; Ubisoft’s shares have fallen to their lowest in more than 10 years, after the company released a report confirming unsatisfactory sales for Star Wars Outlaws and a delay for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Tencent invested €300 million into Guillemot Brothers Limited in 2022, giving the former company 49.9% ownership of the latter. Guillemot Brothers Limited holds part of the Guillemot family’s ownership of Ubisoft, but the purchase seemed to be a net positive, with Tencent reportedly helping to pay off Ubisoft’s debts while bringing its games to China.
At the time, the deal was perceived as a way for Ubisoft to prevent a buyout from happening - the very thing it's now considering after a tough financial year.
