Grats on the friendship?
OT - Hypothetically if Vivendi took over a controlling stake what that mean for the games Ubisoft makes?
It's impossible to tell but there are precedents in the french cultural landscape that can tell us what a Vivendi take over might look like. I'll repost what I said some time ago :
If you're wondering what a takeover from Bollore's Vivendi might look like, you guys should look no further than iTélé, the non stop news channel, sister of Canal+. They were the second biggest news channel in France, and with Vivendi now in charge a lot of things have changed. Lately they hired Jean Marc Morandini, a notably sleazy tv host who's famous for doing basically shitty provocative tabloid content. Right now he has even trouble with the law as he's been known to take advantage of teenage boys during casting calls, asking them to remove their clothes and masturbate (allegedly). This is the kind of guy Bolloré and Vivendi thought would fit perfectly into their new vision for this once respectable news channel.
As a result, a lot of key members of the station left, and the channel has been on strike for three weeks straight now. That's three weeks of non content and reruns. As a result they missed the french republican primary debate which they were supposed to host and was a huge deal for them. They weren't even allowed to be on the air to explain the situation and the reason for their strike. The channel is essentially dead right now and is probably losing all its audience built over the years.
That's the kind of management you can expect from them. If you think this is still the Vivendi who funded Destiny with Activision and helped businesses, you're in for a rude awakening. You can act like it's not a bigdeal right now, that Ubisoft is a shitty company anyway or that Guillemot just want to save his own interest, but the fact is, Vivendi has an horrible track record lately and this hostile takeover fits with their new pattern. The future isn't too bright for Ubi.