Rumors about a possible purchase began to swirl around Ubisoft. French publisher responsible for successful video game franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Special Squad Ghost D big differenceamong other things, would attract the interest of investment capital firms that would analyze its acquisition.
As reported bloomberg, at least two buying funds would consider this possibility. The said report mentions KKR & Co. D Blackstone Inc. as the main companies that could submit takeover bids for the firm led by Yves Guillemot.
However, it is also indicated that Ubisoft is still did not start official negotiations with any of the supposedly interested parties. Thus, hypothetical negotiations may not take place immediately, if at all.
This isn’t the first time there’s been serious talk of buying interest in Ubisoft. Rumors already existed when the studio was embroiled in an Activision Blizzard-style sexual harassment scandal; and it was also seen as a viable option to become part of the PlayStation Studios catalog.
Not only that, even from the company itself, they left the door open for acquisition. “Ubisoft can remain independent – we have the talent, financial scale and a large portfolio of original intellectual property. Having said that if there was an offer to buy usof course, the board of directors will consider it in the interests of all parties involved,” Guillemot said a few months ago.
Will Ubisoft be the next major video game publisher to change hands?
The start of 2022 has had a huge impact on the video game industry with numerous multi-million dollar acquisitions. The three most infamous were those of ActivisionBlizzardwhich will be controlled by Microsoft for nearly $69,000 million; Zinga, who joined Take-Two in exchange for $12.7 billion; D Banguiwhich was bought by Sony for $3.6 billion.
Will Ubisoft aim to be the next major studio to change hands? The available information does not seem strong enough to support this, but it cannot be completely ruled out. After all, the French publisher suffered a very sharp drop in the price of its shares last year (about 45%) and today it has a valuation of $5,380 million, which is quite a distance from the $11,940 million it was worth in 2020.
This puts it in a very interesting position in the market because looking at the numbers that were spent in 2022 alone on acquisitions and mergers, it would not be too “expensive” acquisition. And a rich catalog of intellectual property could help a hypothetical new owner recoup their investment.
At the moment, Ubisoft is not revealing too much information about the future. advised bloomberg about the clear interest of investment capital firms, from the company they have chosen don’t talk about it; however, they indicated that they had built a “strong portfolio” and were “ideally positioned to capitalize on new opportunities amid the industry’s rapid growth.”
Source: Hiper Textual
