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Vivendi pulls out of Ubisoft as Tencent becomes shareholder in the French publisher

Conglomerate sells its 27.3 per cent stake in the firm

Vivendi pulls out of Ubisoft as Tencent becomes shareholder in the French publisher

French publishing giant Ubisoft is free of the clutches of conglomerate Vivendi after compelling the firm to sell its 27.3 per cent of its share capital.

The firm has managed to get Chinese games and tech giant Tencent on board as a long-term investor, as well as the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

New shareholders

The former has purchased 3.4 per cent of Ubisoft's shares, with Tencent snapping up 5.0 per cent. Guillemot Brothers SE has bought 2.7 per cent of stock as part of this transaction.

Ubisoft itself has bought back 8.1 per cent of its stock from Vivendi, with other shares being bought back between 2019 and 2021.

As well as being a shareholder in the French publisher, Tencent has signed a strategic partnership agreement. This likely means that Tencent will be backing Ubisoft-centric decisions with the board.

Our sister-site PCGamesInsider.biz has the full story.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.