Ubisoft is more open to a takeover

In a discussion of the latest quarterly figures, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot opened up a little more to the possibility of being acquired by another company. When Vivendi wanted to take over Ubisoft a few years ago, the French showed a lot of resistance.

“Ubisoft can remain independent. Our properties are sought after by the biggest global players in entertainment and tech. That said, if there is an offer to buy us, the board of directors would of course look closely at it, bearing in mind the importance of shareholders in mind,” Yves Guillemot said while discussing the numbers, according to IGN.

The response from the Ubisoft founder has been much milder than previous statements on the same theme. At the time of the fight against Vivendi, in 2015, Guillemot stated in an internal email: “Our intention is to remain independent and has always been. For 30 years that has enabled us to innovate, take […] and helped us become the global leader we are today.”

Shareholder demand appears to have been fueled by the multiple acquisitions that have recently taken place in the games industry. Parties such as Nacon, Microsoft, Take-Two, Embracer, Tencent, EA and Sony have acquired game studios for millions, if not billions of euros in the past year. The largest of these was Microsoft, which acquired Activision for $68.7 billion.