Tencent and Guillemot Family Planning Ubisoft Buyout

In a new report today from Bloomberg (via GamesIndustry.biz), it's alleged that Tencent and the Guillemot family are reportedly planning on buying out Ubisoft. This comes after Ubisoft has repeatedly landed itself in hot water, not just with gamers but also with shareholders. Shareholders have been urging them to restructure the company for a long time now, but there has been no news from Ubisoft as to whether they are going to do that. Now, Tencent and Guillemot Brothers Ltd have been looking into ways to stabilize the company. With how badly Ubisoft is doing, it's possible that the companies will team up to buy out the publisher and take it private.

Sources that are close to the matter at hand spoke to Bloomberg, saying that the companies have spoken to advisors about how they can proceed with buying out the company. However, the talks are in the very early stages, so there is no guarantee that this will lead to a buyout of Ubisoft. This news comes after AJ Investments called for Ubisoft to go private, as the share prices dropped to the lowest they'd ever been after the release of Star Wars Outlaws.

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At the moment, Ubisoft's market capitalization is at a total of $1.5 billion, with shares dropping a total of 54% so far this year. The prices of the shares even dropped to a ten-year low, as the company saw "softer than expected" sales of Star Wars Outlaws, with the director even expressing their disappointment in the game's overall reception.

Guillemot Brothers LTD is a family-run company where some of the members of the family are responsible for founding Ubisoft, including CEO Yves Guillemot. GBL holds 20% of the publisher's voting rights, with Tencent holding 9.2% of the rights. In 2022, Tencent increased its stake in GBL, which in turn increased its investment in Ubisoft.

Bloomberg did try to reach out to Ubisoft, GBL and Tencent for comment on the ongoing situation, with both