Ubisoft shareholders support Guillemot family, but Vivendi threat lingers

Shareholders endorsed the leadership of Yves Guillemot, the longtime CEO of Ubisoft, as the French video game publisher held its annual meeting. But the threat from Vivendi, which has acquired enough shares to launch a hostile takeover of Ubisoft, still lingers.

Today, the shareholders approved by majority vote resolutions to appoint independent directors for Ubisoft’s board — a move that Yves Guillemot proposed. But Vivendi still holds enough stock to be a threat to Guillemot control of the company, which has one of the industry’s best portfolios of games such as Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, Far Cry, Just Dance, Tom Clancy, and the Rayman, along a fantastic partnership with Nintendo for Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle earlier this month.