Vivendi’s latest purchase of Ubisoft stock shows it isn’t going away

In September, Ubisoft executives breathed a sigh of relief as Vivendi didn’t launch a hostile bid to control the French video game company’s board. But Vivendi has since increased its stake in the publisher of hits like Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy games from 23 percent to more than 24 percent.

That small change in Vivendi’s percentage ownership of publicly traded Ubisoft’s stock is ominous because it took place after the annual meeting on September 29. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has vowed to fight the Vivendi attempt at control because he doesn’t think it’s good for Ubisoft’s creative freedom, its capability to produce high-quality games, and the well-being of the publisher’s 10,000 employees.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.