Vivendi Officially Withdraws From Ubisoft

Vivendi Sells All Stock In Ubisoft

In late 2017, it was revealed that media giant Vivendi was attempting what could only be called a hostile takeover of Ubisoft.

Aggressively purchasing shares where ever they could find them, Ubisoft was left in the rather desperate position of potentially having their control taken from under their feet. Not a nice place to be!

After around a year, however, Vivendi announced last Summer that their efforts hadn’t been successful. Ubisoft breathed a pretty high sigh of relief. The hostile takeover was over and Vivendi was actually now actively looking to sell off all the stock they had so eagerly purchased.

Deal (Not) Done!

In a report via GamesIndustry, it seems that the saga has now finally concluded. Vivendi has confirmed that they have just completed the sale of all their remaining stock in Ubisoft. In other words, it’s all over!

The company has issued a statement saying: “Vivendi is no longer a Ubisoft shareholder and maintains its commitment to refrain from purchasing Ubisoft shares for a period of five years.”

What Do We Think?

We can’t honestly profess to be huge fans of Ubisoft. It is, however, perhaps better that the developer stays as independent as they can. As EA has consistently proven, being swallowed up by a larger company generally doesn’t equal better games for consumers. I mean, Ubisoft has enough problems releasing decent games on launch anyway! What? I did say we were not huge fans!

This news, however, does at least draw a line under the whole affair. For the moment, Ubisoft is (at least in business takeover terms) safe.

What do you think? Is this good news for Ubisoft? – Let us know in the comments!