Yves Guillemot (left) and CFO Alain Martinez at Ubisoft's annual meeting in 2017.
Categories

Vivendi says it won’t make hostile takeover bid for Ubisoft in near-term

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Media conglomerate Vivendi spent perhaps $683 million acquiring about a quarter of the stock of French video game publisher Ubisoft over the past year or so. But Vivendi said Thursday that it has no plans to make a hostile takeover of Ubisoft, maker of games such as Assassin’s Creed, in the next six months. Paris-based Vivendi made the announcement as it reported its third-quarter earnings.

The news puts Ubisoft, which cofounder Yves Guillemot still runs, at ease. The company has been worried that a loss of independence will be bad for the company’s capability to make games and hang on to its 12,000 employees.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X!
Join now to enjoy our free and premium membership perks.
Join Now
Already a member? Sign in
Written by

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.