Ubisoft bought by the Chinese giant Tencent? Discussions with the G brothers

And if Ubisoft was bought by Tencent, the Chinese giant? This is essentially the scenario strongly envisaged by the Chinese company which approached the Guillemot brothers to show its interest in the French publisher to whom we owe licenses such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rabbids, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, etc. According to Reuters, Tencent wants to strengthen its presence in the capital of Ubisoft, for which it already holds a 5% stake, acquired in 2018. The idea for Tencent is indeed to become the majority shareholder of the company. company headed by Yves Guillemot, by buying back all the shares held by the Guillemot family, which represents 15% of Ubisoft’s shares. According to Reteurs, the Chinese giant is ready to pay up to €100 per title to convince the Guillemot siblings to take their golden retirement.

According to other indiscretionsthe Chinese multinational would have already made the trip to Paris last May to submit a much higher non-binding offer at the current Ubisoft share price, which is still skyrocketing. On the Paris Stock Exchange, Ubisoft shares rose crescendo following this announcement, reaching €47.41, or 12.6663% increase in a few hours. The title “Guillemot Corp holding” owned by the Guillemot family also soared by 7.1763%.

If some media have already tried to contact the Ubisoft press service, it has been stipulated that no official of the French company wished to comment. Same position on the side of Tencent, who prefers to act in silence so as not to compromise such a maneuver. It must be said that for almost a year, Ubisoft has completely changed its strategy, both in the production of future games and in terms of communication. Talkative and quite prolix for more than 20 years, Ubisoft has been discreet in recent months, with the added bonus of drastic changes in philosophy and business model for some of their games. Mobile, free-to-play, Ubisoft seems to be changing its tune to go in the direction of games with immediate and long-term success. It is recalled that the Tencent group holds stakes in Epic Games (Fortnite), Riot Games (League of Legends), Supercell (Clash of Clans). Ubisoft would therefore be just another partner to strengthen their presence in video games, with an appetite for mobile obviously…