Ubisoft - Might be Next Big Acquisition

Wccftech speculates that Ubisoft might be the next big acquisition for the likes of Microsoft, Sony, or Tencent.

A new report published by Bloomberg suggests that Ubisoft might be the next big publisher targeted for acquisition. According to Bloomberg's sources, several private equity firms such as Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co. have been studying the Ubisoft business. That said, Ubisoft hasn't entered yet into any negotiations and it's not even assured that the major shareholder, chairman and CEO Yves Guillemot's family, would be interested in selling. On the other hand, according to Kotaku, the company has recently tidied up its books with the help of external auditing companies. It could be a sign that Ubisoft is preparing to sell.

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"the company has recently tidied up its books with the help of external auditing companies"

Maybe they're just trying to get more efficient so they can crank out better games?

Hahahahahaha. Just kidding. sigh.

i wouldn't mind

I'd say this rumor article from Bloomberg has about a 50% of being true. I only say this due to Ubisoft losing employees, and other internal problems for the last two years.

The other 50% says nah as Guillemot always stops takeover bids/mergers.

Now anyone who thinks a merger would improve the companies games that's extremely laughable. Ubisoft perfected a cookie cutter formula that sells over 20M+ each time.

Not sure if it would be a improvement (for us gamers) if private equity funds buy a publisher.

Originally Posted by basharran
Not sure if it would be a improvement (for us gamers) if private equity funds buy a publisher.

AAA gaming for the most part is not an improvement for gamers, period.

As long as there are still indies (to mid-sized teams) around delivering the good stuff, I honestly couldn't care much less if the entire AAA sector was owned by our insectoid overlords.

Doesn't matter who acquires them, I still wouldn't touch their online platform with a thirty metre pole, nor Origin. The first impressions both made on me years ago were quite lasting, I'm afraid.

I still like Ubi for their Rayman games. Nobody else of the major PC publishers does this anymore.
I don't like their other action games, though.

However, what worries me deeply is that this reduces the number of bigger PC publishers even more.

Maybe it will end up like in the music market : Only 3 big publishers left.
And Bankcamp and similar ones, of course.

Future people will have to switch / decide between quasi-monopolies and a myriad of Indies.

Originally Posted by TheSHEEEP
As long as there are still indies (to mid-sized teams) around delivering the good stuff, I honestly couldn't care much less if the entire AAA sector was owned by our insectoid overlords.

I largely agree, but I still wouldn't want to see all the AAA developers eventually owned by 3 giant conglomerates. I'd prefer there were more AAA publishers/developers not less.

I guess I could be a bit selfish and say if MS buys them at least I can get them all on gamepass.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
..I still wouldn't touch their online platform with a thirty metre pole, nor Origin.

Same here, the only good which might come of this is maybe like Bethesda it would lead to them getting rid of their crappy online service.

Even if the company liquidated tomorrow, the developers would still be out there. Some would switch to other industries, I guess, but that's happening all the time anyway.

Ubi's games have been fun, at least for me. Watch Dogs 2 and 3 were fun stuff. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey was a whole lot of fun, too, despite the crazy number of hits enemies could take.

Originally Posted by shamroxor
Same here, the only good which might come of this is maybe like Bethesda it would lead to them getting rid of their crappy online service.

Agreed. I'm okay with Steam, GoG, Epic and even Origin to a certain extent. But Ubisoft connect is the worst of the bunch.

Well..well..Microsoft is looking for more accusations after buying Blizzard.

Xbox Hiring to Help It Find More Acquisitions - IGN Daily Fix

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Well..well..Microsoft is looking for more accusations after buying Blizzard.

Xbox Hiring to Help It Find More Acquisitions - IGN Daily Fix

Buyout by Microsoft is something like final stage in life-cycle of software development company. And new life will bloom on corpses of deceased.

It's the natural tendency in all flourishing markets it seems. Most cars are from companies under the same holdings, same for food, movies and so on. And we see that more and more with games too.

While I'm more or less OK with that for utilitarian products, I'm not sure I like the trend for entertainment products.

If all games look the same and follow proven patterns without much imagination in order to reduce risk or streamline the production, it will be very boring. Ubisoft is already quite the game factory on its own, the first AC titles were fun and original but I stopped enjoying them long ago.

If this acquisition speculation happened to be true, I wonder what company could acquire and absorb such a behemoth, though.

Microsoft buying Ubisoft is nonsense. If Microsoft will buy another huge company, that will be EA. Not Ubi.
Tencent or Sony however, I honestly can't believe they didn't try to snag Ubisoft yet.

While I agree with JDR, we need more different studios and not less, the sad reality is that selling a videogame without at least 200 millions spent into bribing PCGamer journalists marketing became almost impossible.
And who can afford something like that for everything, even trash titles? Microsoft.

The good news in this bad situation is that Microsoft doesn't sell lootboxes.
Not yet at least.

Originally Posted by joxer
Microsoft buying Ubisoft is nonsense. If Microsoft will buy another huge company, that will be EA. Not Ubi.

EA has a vastly higher market cap than Ubisoft though. Even Microsoft might baulk at the price for EA.

EA does generate more revenue with a vastly lower headcount. A big chunk of that revenue is tied up in about 10 big franchises (FIFA, Sims, Madden, NfS, Battlefield etc) - I guess those franchises could be attractive for Microsoft. Ubisoft really only has a handful of comparable franchises i.e. AC and the Tom Clancy games.

Just saw this, it doesn't look like a company preparing to be acquired, but who knows:

Ubisoft adds seven to executive committee to "accelerate its transformation"
Marie-Sophie de Waubert has been appointed SVP of studios operations

Ubisoft has announced a number of senior appointments to its executive committee, including new senior vice president of studios operations, Marie-Sophie de Waubert.

The firm's executive committee aims at helping Ubisoft deliver "major strategic orientations to achieve a strong, sustainable and inclusive growth," the announcement explained, adding that it should help the company "accelerate its transformation."

[. . .]

Guillemot commented: "I am extremely happy to welcome these new key members to our executive committee. Ubisoft has been adapting its organisation over the past two years to align it with a fast-changing industry and its many growth opportunities.

"We are now entering a new phase of our development where we are focusing on expanding our brands and portfolio to significantly larger audiences, building an increasingly recurring business and cutting-edge technologies, while continuing to enrich our players' experiences and enhance our workplace culture. I am confident that this new extended executive committee will allow us to go even further in creating the best games and meeting the needs of our players, our teams and all Ubisoft's stakeholders."

There are some rumors to ubisoft + coming to gamepass, I wonder of instead of acquisition they are looking at more of a partnership to keep independent?