The Guillemot family already have some double votes rights, but there is 90% of the shares they don't own, so if anyone wants to buy majority rights, and have the financial capacity to do so, there's not much they can do unfortunately.
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Vivendi Buys Stakes in French Gamemakers Ubisoft and Gameloft
- Thread starter ShogunDarius
- Start date
The Guillemot family already have some double votes rights, but there is 90% of the shares they don't own, so if anyone wants to buy majority rights, and have the financial capacity to do so, there's not much they can do unfortunately.
Not a big news but still worth sharing for the few interested.
Blackrock offically announced that they're now under 5%, standing at 4.51% (and ~4% voting rights) after selling shares , most likely to Vivendi.
Nothing new on Vivendi's side, most analysts predict that Vivendi won't try an hostile takeover though and are instead trying to discuss with the Guillemot's family.
Blackrock offically announced that they're now under 5%, standing at 4.51% (and ~4% voting rights) after selling shares , most likely to Vivendi.
Nothing new on Vivendi's side, most analysts predict that Vivendi won't try an hostile takeover though and are instead trying to discuss with the Guillemot's family.
Well we're getting at it quickly (as usual with Bolloré). Blackrock and maybe Fidelity Investments (9,99%) soon. Vivendi/Bolloré aims for 15% quickly, 20% maybe a while later which will give him more votes than the Guillemot.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Don't wanna be in Guillemot's shows right now
Vivendi now owns 11.7% of Gameloft (they were at 10.2% one week ago), no news regarding Ubisoft shares for now.
Yves Guillemot also gave an interview to the french paper Les Echos
No big news, here are the more interesting tidbits
- He wasn't aware of Vivendi's intention up until it was officially announced, the fun part is that he had a phone call with Bolloré two hours prior about potential synergy between Ubisoft and Vivendi and Bolloré didn't say a thing about Vivendi buying Ubisoft's shares.
- He of course doesn't want to have anything to do with Vivendi whatsoever
- He's looking into different ways to avoid a Vivendi takeover, buying shares on their side is a possibility (the journalist asked the question, Guillemot wasn't the one to brought the idea), it seems like he's rather looking for others partners including platforms owners who need content that could be created by Ubisoft (I'm not 100% sure if he meant Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo, but it sure looked that way)
- Vivendi still owns 6% of Activision-Blizzard a direct competitor of Ubisoft so it doesn't make any sense for Vivendi to own shares for both companies. He also quotes the Activision-Blizzard CEO who said that Vivendi prevented them to be as reactive as they wished (in regards to the videogame market)
- If Vivendi sell its shares on Acti-Blizzard and buy Ubisoft, they could be harmful for some Ubi business, for example there's the Ravving Rabbids TV show that both Canal+ and France TV wanted to air, in the end Ubisoft chose France TV (Canal+ is owned by Vivendi).
They don't want to be a content creator solely for Vivendi because they are working with multiple partners.
- Merging Ubisoft and Gameloft might be a good idea on paper but it's much more complex than that.
Yves Guillemot also gave an interview to the french paper Les Echos
No big news, here are the more interesting tidbits
- He wasn't aware of Vivendi's intention up until it was officially announced, the fun part is that he had a phone call with Bolloré two hours prior about potential synergy between Ubisoft and Vivendi and Bolloré didn't say a thing about Vivendi buying Ubisoft's shares.
- He of course doesn't want to have anything to do with Vivendi whatsoever
- He's looking into different ways to avoid a Vivendi takeover, buying shares on their side is a possibility (the journalist asked the question, Guillemot wasn't the one to brought the idea), it seems like he's rather looking for others partners including platforms owners who need content that could be created by Ubisoft (I'm not 100% sure if he meant Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo, but it sure looked that way)
- Vivendi still owns 6% of Activision-Blizzard a direct competitor of Ubisoft so it doesn't make any sense for Vivendi to own shares for both companies. He also quotes the Activision-Blizzard CEO who said that Vivendi prevented them to be as reactive as they wished (in regards to the videogame market)
- If Vivendi sell its shares on Acti-Blizzard and buy Ubisoft, they could be harmful for some Ubi business, for example there's the Ravving Rabbids TV show that both Canal+ and France TV wanted to air, in the end Ubisoft chose France TV (Canal+ is owned by Vivendi).
They don't want to be a content creator solely for Vivendi because they are working with multiple partners.
- Merging Ubisoft and Gameloft might be a good idea on paper but it's much more complex than that.
Stereogatari
Banned
Killers of Crash Bandicoot. I will not forgive you.
Smiles and Cries
Member
they are buying into Gameloft just as deep as Ubisoft so doubt merging would help
First part isn't a viable possibility, Vivendi have $9 billions in cash, and they just spent something close to half a billion in those Ubi/Gameloft shares.
I'm not sure the second part will be good for Ubi either, talking about keeping their independence and going to sony or MS? Lol.
I'm convinced, however, that some talk happened with Microsoft. Nicolas Gaume is at MS France now, no doubt he checks the situation to help Yves Guillemot.
Smiles and Cries
Member
kinda weird seeing a company's founder get screwed like this, it does not seem like they have a way to fight this
Why not both ?
They're a big publisher which invest on both the Xbox and Playstation Brand, if they manage to convince them that a Vivendi takeover could be harmful for their respective lineup in the longterm the two could invest in Ubi.
That is in an ideal world of course, they could also go the "semi exclusive way" and only have one invest and give them superior version exclusive dlc and others cosmetic stuff for multiplatform titles (the way they went with Unity on Xbox One for example).
As long as they maintain some form of creative freedom I think Yves Guillemot sees it as better than an Vivendi takeover, and he might not be wrong
The idea of a merge was more like in Vivendi's side in case of a takeover.
This is quite despicable.
Smiles and Cries
Member
that is a very little bump for the Ubisoft buy, it must be getting harder to find sellers
Game loft though getting swallowed
WhateverItTakes
Banned
Doubt a proper takeover will ever happen. 10% is worrying though, I wonder what kind of influence they could have...
Mass_Pincup
Banned
I pray for this to not happen, Vivendi is a disgusting company.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Why are Ubisoft getting "screwed", and why are Vivendi's actions "despicable"? Ubisoft is a publicly-traded company, and anyone with the cash and the will can buy them, whether it's an Arabian prince or a Chinese cotton manufacturer. Why are people so bothered by this?
Not really, there could be many explanations of why they didn't bought shares faster but I don't think the difficulty to find sellers would be one of them.
Btw as long as they don't reach 15% they don't have any obligation to tell how many shares of Ubisoft they own (this time they did because they reached 15% of Gameloft and probably felt the need to state for Ubisoft too), they very well could be much higher than 10.8% already.
Another small update
Vivendi is up to 11.52% of shares and >10% voting rights of Ubisoft as of today.
Also apparently the Guillemot's brothers bought 262k€+124k€ worth of shares (which is well..., 0.015%)
As for Gamelot, Vivendi is up to 17,34% and 15,34% voting shares, here too the Guillemot's brother are buying shares they are up to 13.82% and 22,57% voting shares.
Vivendi is up to 11.52% of shares and >10% voting rights of Ubisoft as of today.
Also apparently the Guillemot's brothers bought 262k€+124k€ worth of shares (which is well..., 0.015%)
As for Gamelot, Vivendi is up to 17,34% and 15,34% voting shares, here too the Guillemot's brother are buying shares they are up to 13.82% and 22,57% voting shares.
T-T-Triple post.
Today Vivendi announced that they reached 25% voting rights for Gameloft (and 28% of shares)
Found this neat graphic the other day who is better than a thousand words
For Ubisoft only thing we know is that Vivendi is still owning <15% of Ubisoft shares.
The Guillemot brothers are still buying shares, especially Gameloft's, how is this thing effective remains to be seen.
Today Vivendi announced that they reached 25% voting rights for Gameloft (and 28% of shares)
Found this neat graphic the other day who is better than a thousand words
For Ubisoft only thing we know is that Vivendi is still owning <15% of Ubisoft shares.
The Guillemot brothers are still buying shares, especially Gameloft's, how is this thing effective remains to be seen.
DustyVonEric
Member
Thanks for the updates.
This is getting kind of crazy, watching it happen.
This is getting kind of crazy, watching it happen.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Interesting. I'm still curious why Vivendi sold their stake in Activision and are now interested in buying up Ubisoft - unless Activision Blizzard paid well over the odds in order to buy themselves out.
Likely because they see it as bad for their hobby. Might have very little if anything at all to do with whether this is "the way things work".
SentryDown
Member
The main reason though is Vincent Bolloré, the current owner and CEO of Vivendi. It's probably unknown outside France but this guy is a true shark, he takes control of companies, milk them, try to blend them with the whole group (which lead to conflicts of interest, loss of identity, ...), agressively restructure executive board and cut costs and then go away with his huge added value like nothing happened. That's why this is scary.
1st Course
Member
I don't think they wanted to sell the shares.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/25/activision-buys-back-majority-stake-from-vivendi-for-5-83-billion/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...idered-firing-activision-s-kotick-over-buyout
If I remember right Kotick was upset that Vinvedi was using Acti-Bliz cash to make up for their struggling divisions, so he and with help from outside investors formed an investment vehicle (ASAC II LP) and made a deal with Vivendi to buy back the shares.
SpoonyBard
Banned
Most sensible explanation would be that their analysis showed Activision to be overvalued and/or risky in the long run, and Ubi to be undervalued.
D
Deleted member 80556
Unconfirmed Member
UpDownLeftRight
Banned
I'm guessing the outcome of this is pretty easy to predict since it's become a bidding war and one party has a lot more money?
Arkam
Member
It is about making money not status. You invest in something that has the capacity to appreciate in worth.
Lord of Castamere
Member
This is extremely upsetting actually. Hopefully Ubisoft can offset this or we don't see any major repercussions for a few years. Ubisoft is still one of my favorites devs even with some missteps over the years.
Since Vivendi is above 20% Ubisoft can enact a multitude of shareholder plans that could stop Vivendi
Problem is Vivendi seems determined to takeover and probably has the capital to go through with it even if Ubisoft tries to stop them
Nikodemos
Member
Looks like something out of Shadowrun.
It's not the same CEO now than when Activision Blizzard was sold, Bolloré was nomminated in June 2014 and the sale was made in July 2013. I don't think Bolloré would have sold their shares to Activision-Blizzard if he had been CEO at this time.
No big update, in fact nothing new in Ubisoft's case, but as I said in an earlier post the Guillemot's brother are still buying Gameloft's shares on a daily basis, and on a paper from AMF published today we learned that they have bought more than 1.5M worth of shares last week, something like 0.35% of Gameloft.
Overall they should be very close to the 30% ownership, with Vivendi being around the same level (30% is a very important number because if you go beyond that mark it is mandatory to make a takeover bid).
Bolloré and the Guillemots are probably still talking, but I can't see Bolloré waiting too long anymore (the story began 3 months ago).
Overall they should be very close to the 30% ownership, with Vivendi being around the same level (30% is a very important number because if you go beyond that mark it is mandatory to make a takeover bid).
Bolloré and the Guillemots are probably still talking, but I can't see Bolloré waiting too long anymore (the story began 3 months ago).
Update, still nothing on Ubisoft's side, but for the last few days things have been moving for Gameloft.
Basically the Guillemot are still buying shares (400k a few days ago again) and must be very close to 30% ownership, it also seems like there have been talks with GungHo in order to avoid a Vivendi takeover, it could be an interesting partnership for both sides and probably a better outcome than a straight buyout from Vivendi.
Basically the Guillemot are still buying shares (400k a few days ago again) and must be very close to 30% ownership, it also seems like there have been talks with GungHo in order to avoid a Vivendi takeover, it could be an interesting partnership for both sides and probably a better outcome than a straight buyout from Vivendi.
I can't find an English source yet, but Ubisoft said on their conference call that Vivendi is now close to 15%.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/20...1FILWWW00385-vivendi-detient-15-d-ubisoft.php
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/20...1FILWWW00385-vivendi-detient-15-d-ubisoft.php
Vivendi's financial results are out. They now own more than 30% of Gameloft.
http://www.vivendi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/20160218_VIV_PR_Vivendi-2015-earnings.pdf
http://www.vivendi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/20160218_VIV_PR_Vivendi-2015-earnings.pdf
Hostile takeover incoming?
I am no expert, but that's how it reads like to me.
Just found the press release. They are offering 6 per share.
http://www.vivendi.com/press/press-...hares-of-gameloft-at-a-price-of-e6-per-share/
Quick translation
- HSCBC working for Vivendi has formally proposed a takeover
- Vivendi owns 30,01% of shares and 26.72% of voting rights
- It is now MANDATORY for Vivendi to do a takeover
- They're offering 6€/share (these days it could be bought around 4-5€, so bar Guillemot's brothers that would be a huge profit to sell your shares to Vivendi right now)
- The takeover will be a success unless Vivendi fails to own 50% of shares (and I don't think there's any deadline for that)
There's another very lengthy document but I didn't have time to read through it.
Might be thread worthy ? I dunno.
Blackthorn
"hello?" "this is vagina"
I do feel this is thread worthy, or at least a title change. The situation is a lot more severe now.
We're talking about Gameloft here. Although it opened above 6€ today and it's bursting (+17% right now).
http://www.boursorama.com/cours.phtml?symbole=1rPGFT
http://www.boursorama.com/cours.phtml?symbole=1rPGFT