Back in October, it was rumoured that Ubisoft was considering going private after a rough year of releases. Two months on and it appears that the negotiations are still ongoing, with Ubisoft and Tencent apparently engaged in talks about buyout terms.
That is according to the latest report from Reuters, which provides new information from "two people familiar with the matter". According to the outlet's sources, Ubisoft shareholders are currently considering a potential buyout of the company, but one that still leaves the founding Guillemot family in control.
However, the company's second-largest shareholder, Tencent, is one of the names mooted to participate in the buyout, with the Chinese tech giant reportedly keen to have a "greater say on future board decisions including cash flow distribution in return for financing the deal".
Naturally, there is some friction between these two desired outcomes, with both the original Guillemot family and Tencent — which owns nearly 10% of Ubisoft — vying for control over the company. Reuters reports that the talks are still ongoing, with no decision having been reached at the time of writing.
Tencent apparently also wants to prevent another hostile takeover from other investors, with the Chinese firm wanting to "remain patient" and for the Guillemot family to "agree to a deal".
Earlier this week, Ubisoft reported another wave of layoffs, with hundreds of staff members reportedly affected. This is but the latest in a slew of cutbacks at the company, which has already seen multiple large layoff schemes in 2024 after reporting a series of poor sales figures.
This includes the announcement that development on the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC free-to-play shooter XDefiant will be ending, with servers being shut down in June 2025.
We will be keeping an eye out for more news on this topic and will keep you updated over the coming months.
[source reuters.com]
Comments 44
Nintendo should buy them. Problem solved
That sucks for all around.
Boy I hope we still get a new assassins creed in February...
I thought they were making the first AAAA games? Shouldn't they be doing well? /s
No surprise here considering the recent direction they've decided to take, they would do well to try and target the larger market within the gaming sphere, instead of targeting a niche market of gamers who clearly are not big enough to support a company their size.
Yves Guillemot and Philippe Tremblay should "get comfortable" with not owning Ubisoft 🤷🏽♀️
@Kazman2007 I thought for sure all the microtransactions would save them!
They're doomed. They've absolutely trashed their own reputation, in multiple ways, and being absorbed by Tencent (another gross company) isn't likely to help that--even if it allows them to continue scraping by on life support.
Can someone please just put Ubisoft out of its misery?
rumors are sony could buy them..
Nintendo should buy it and mainly just make Mario + Rabbids games and perhaps some Rayman as well! They need new leadership and direction, and I’m sure Nintendo would give them both of those things.
@N8tiveT3ch nintendo rarely buys other companies..
@PikminMarioKirby I totally agree. Maybe just some Prince of Persia in there for good measure and I think things would be perfect.
@LadyCharlie Hahaha. Good one
We tried to warn you Ubisoft. We tried to warn you...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Ubisoft seems to be the prime example of investors looking to ruin the "next big thing" for a few bucks. They couldn't care less about the player's voice, choosing instead to chase trends for some quick cash. Unfortunately, the real victims are the employees and games as a form of art
At this point Ubisoft can close down completely for all I care.
@johnedwin I know I was being "smart"
@N8tiveT3ch God, no.
I invested $100 in Ubisoft when they're stock plummeted after Outlaws with the expectation that it will eventually come back or, best case scenario, they're bought out.
Why would Nintendo buy them? What does Ubisoft really have?
I think they should go private. Taking companies public is a real double edged sword and think going private may be the only way to save the company at this point.
But, uh, I also don’t really know what I’m talking about, so…
Twenty or so years ago EA had some shares and Ubisoft claimed it was “hostile”. Ten or so years ago Vivendi had some shares and did try a hostile takeover.
Now Ubisoft wants to be purchased?
Good riddance after their attempt to blackwash Japanese history.
Gonna need more popcorn soon. This downfall is so much fun to watch, I don't want to look away!
Ubisoft is literally selling their soul to the devil if Tencent buys them. Not much of a loss either way. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was one of the best games ever made, and the last game I've had interest in from them.
I picture the 2 companies vying for Ubisoft bidding lower and lower until the price finally gets so low Ubi has to agree or else declare bankruptcy.🤑
I would love to see more companies go private. The overhead of having investors is killing everything good these days.
Here we go again.
Ubisoft will keep destroying themselves by buying out other companies then dumped out their employees when the games sales dropped out.
Wait until Ubisoft going bankrupt and it will be something funny to watch.
It will never happen but Nintendo buying it and making Assassin's Creed a Nintendo exclusive would be glorious to see the fallout and freakout from people🤣🤣🤣
Not to be negative but at this point I'll be glad when they go away. Sell all your franchises to somebody who will do something well with them.
@Anti-Matter there is nothing funny about it.
I hope they fix their issues and hopefully not get absorbed by the CCP...I mean tencent.
If the Guillemot family is seemingly willing, to sell their company, then why would it matter to them who buys Ubisoft and what will happen to it? Let them take the money and just shove off. Feels weird to say it but I'd actually prefer Tencent to outright buy Ubisoft. I don't think that a Chinese company will succumb to the woke idiocy that is gripping the games industry at the moment.
@FirstEmperor What do you mean by that? Sorry. Haven't fully kept up with Ubisoft news. Also, that whole "Get comfortable" thing was a Ubisoft quote about not owning games, right?
How about entertaining options of them going out of business.
They stopped making Trials and Rayman games. Wish they would make new entries. Not a fan of what they did with Prince of Persia.
Removed - inappropriate; user is banned
@Dirty_Croc yeah for this one that's all I'm planning. I'm hoping to cash out a couple hundred or so. Or, if the shares are converted into Tencent or whatever, I might just keep them.
Interesting how they keep up their anti-consumer practices right up until now. At this rate, they won't be the only triple AAA to face this situation. They make very intriguing flagbearers though.
As an old *****, I’ve played video games for nearly 30 years and I don’t think I’ve ever purchased an UbiSoft game? I know they have somewhat of a pedigree, but a rather mediocre pedigree as far as I’m concerned. I’d rather play Castlevania or Metroid than Prince of Persia, and Mario, Donkey Kong, Sonic, etc rather than Rayman. The appeal of Rabbids has always escaped me. How UbiSoft got Nintendo to license Mario to them for the Rabbids games is the most interesting thing about them.
@Mariotag Ubisoft decided to make a Yasuke, a black man who lived in feudal Japan for a few years, the protagonist of their upcoming Assassin's Creed game. This is a strange choice given that previous AC games always had a fictional native of the region as the protagonist, but on top of that Ubisoft claimed that Yasuke's depiction as a samurai in the game is based on real life, when all the historical evidence shows that he was nothing more than a bodyguard and swordbearer for Nobunaga (essentially the samurai version of a knight's squire). And of course, the usual false accusations of gamers being racist followed when people rightly pointed out the blatant historical revisionism that Ubisoft was trying to pull.
And yes, it was Ubisoft that said "gamers need to get comfortable with not owning your games."
@Agenerationofgens This right here is probably the best reason ever for a company, like Nintendo, to remain completely debt free, despite the fearmongering of some economists about how debt is somehow a good thing. Those low interest rate loans that Blackrock and Vanguard pressure companies into qualifying for are irrelevant if you have no need for loans to begin with.
@Vriess apparently, Tencent were the ones who brought the whole "woke" mentality to Ubisoft's management, not because they actually believe in that "cause", but because they wanted to destroy the company from the inside, so that they could buy them cheap.
I’m sure Xbox Microsoft will pick the, up….they love dealing in *****
Really sad state of affairs for everyone. Let's hope UBI get through this and turn their fortunes around somehow.
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