Several private equity firms might be interested in buying Ubisoft
“Deliberations are at an early stage,” according to a Bloomberg report.
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With Microsoft buyingActivisionBlizzard (to add to Zenimax Media andthe many other studios and publishers Microsoft owns), Take-Two buying Zynga, Embracer Group buying Gearbox Entertainment, and Sony buying Bungie (with Sony CEO Jim Ryan saying toexpect more of the same), it’s been a season of consolidation in the videogame industry. According to a report byBloomberg, Ubisoft could be next.
“Several private equity firms including Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co. have been studying the French business,” according to Bloomberg’s anonymous sources, who also said, “Ubisofthasn’t entered into any serious negotiations with potential acquirers, and it’s unclear whether its major shareholder is willing to pursue a deal”.
This report’s veracity was backed up byKotaku, whose sources among Ubisoft developers, both current and former, claimed that “the company will eventually sell to someone amid a flagging stock price and ongoing production struggles.”
The publisher of Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry certainly has problems—according to an Axios report from December, Ubisoft hasshed employees at an alarming ratethanks to low pay, issues with its creative direction, better opportunities elsewhere, and widespread workplace abuse. Recently, a Ubisoft employee groupcalled out company leadershipfor failing to address those issues. But being taken over by a private equity firm, which could lay off employees and push the French publisher even further into trend-chasing cynicism than its unsuccessfuldabbling in NFTs, wouldn’t be much of an improvement.
Yesterday Ubisoftofficially announced Project Q, a multiplayer shooter that is currently in early development. It then had to follow-up the announcement on Twitter with replies explaining that, no, it’snot a battle royale, and no, there areno plans to add NFTs.
In 2016, Ubisoft managed to head off a hostile takeover by Vivendi, which eventuallysold the last of its shares in 2019.
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Jody’s first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia’s first radio show about videogames,Zed Games. He’s written forRock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue,GamesRadar,Zam,Glixel,Five Out of Ten Magazine, andPlayboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody’s first article for PC Gamer was about theaudio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he’s written aboutwhy Silent Hill belongs on PC,why Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, andhow weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.
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