Key recommendations
- Ubisoft may be bought by Tencent and its founding Guillemot family due to recent trade battles.
- Some called for Ubisoft to go private, while others suggested that Ubisoft's current CEO, Yves Guillemot, step down.
- Despite mostly positive reviews, Star Wars Outlaws failed to meet sales expectations, and the delay of Assassin's Creed Shadows until 2025 only compounded Ubisoft's current woes.
Tencent and the Guillemot family could buy Ubisoft following the publisher's recent commercial troubles. Guillemot originally founded Ubisoft in the late 1980s, although the company was originally called “Ubi Soft”. It initially released PC titles and licensed handheld games for the most part until 1995, when it had great success with the original version. Rayman on PlayStation. Since then, Ubisoft has become one of the biggest publishers in the industry, supported by major franchises such as Splinter Cell, assassin's creedand Prince of Persia.
Unfortunately, the past few years haven't been all that fruitful for Ubisoft, as the company has been hit with numerous controversies and lackluster releases. Star Wars Outlawswhich launched to lukewarm reviews back in August, ultimately fell short of Ubisoft's sales expectations, so much so that the company's stock fell to a 10-year low shortly after its release. The trouble would only continue from there as Assassin's Creed Shadowsonce scheduled to launch on November 15, it was recently pushed back to February 14, 2025 following multiple controversies.
There have been calls from investors for Ubisoft to go private in the face of these critical and commercial failures, and now it looks like the company could soon be bought. According to anonymous sources speaking to Bloomberg, Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Ubisoft Entertainment SA's founding Guillemot family are looking to buy the publisher as a way to stabilize its market value. Tencent and the Guillemot family are also considering other options, and representatives for both estates declined to comment on the matter at this time.
The Guillemot family, the founders of Ubisoft, may buy the company
Earlier this year, AJ Investments' Juraj Krupa wrote a letter recommending that Ubisoft go private for the first time since 1996 following its stock slump, and others suggested that current Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot should to resign as part of a necessary course. correction. Other recommendations made in the past month included downsizing, which would lead to even more layoffs at Ubisoft, as well as a refocus on the company's big-name IPs such as Rainbow Six Siege, assassin's creedand Watch dogs.
According to a recent financial report, Ubisoft shares are up about 33 percent in Paris since news first broke of the potential buyout by the Guillemot family and increasingly active Tencent, which is the company's biggest gain since 1996. It's still too early to say if that Ubisoft the buyout will happen, but it seems many agree a change is needed for the struggling triple-A publisher.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft is a well-known video game developer and publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé, France. Current CEO Yves Guillemot leads a number of teams responsible for some of the most iconic and well-known series in video games, with franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Farcry, The Crew, Just Dance and many more. Ubisoft also acts as the parent company for a number of other video game developers, including names like Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft Paris, Blue Mammoth Games, Red Storm Entertainment and more.
- Date of establishment
- March 28, 1986
- OFFICE
- Saint Mande, France
- CEO
- Yves Guillemot
