Vivendi rules out hostile takeover of Ubisoft for the time being due to money shortage

Media conglomerate Vivendi will not try to acquire game publisher Ubisoft for the next six months. Vivendi presented third quarter figures and earnings of 293 million euros were lower than what analysts had projected for the company.

According to Reuters, earnings of 324 million euros were projected by market analysts, meaning Vivendi, a French conglomerate, is 31 million euros below that. The fact that it indicates a time period in which it will leave Ubisoft alone does indicate that the hunt for the well-known French publisher should continue after that. Financially speaking, Ubisoft is doing well. That company is just exceeding its sales targets and its shares have doubled in value compared to January this year.

Vivendi has majority interests in Canal+ Group, Universal Music, Telecom Italia, Dailymotion and Gameloft, among others. Until 2013, it also owned a majority of Activision Blizzard, but it bought itself out. Vivendi now owns 26 percent of Ubisoft’s stock. The Guillemot family, who founded the publisher, owns 15 percent. In a response, they state that they are aware of Vivendi’s coverage and remain wary of their future intentions. It has been known for some time that Vivendi has set his sights on Ubisoft, which is one of the largest in the world in the game field.

Ubisoft has been around since 1986 and started out as a distributor for games from MicroProse and Electronic Arts, among others. It has also been making its own games since the mid-1990s. It now has its own digital distribution platform uPlay and is known for major franchises such as Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, Watch_Dogs and Rayman.