It looks like someone can’t take a hint. Despite Ubisoft making it clear that it’s a strong, independent company who don’t need no man, Vivendi has continued its acquisition of shares in the company.
Like a lecherous drunk who doesn’t understand that no means no, Vivendi announced in a press release that it now owns more than 24 percent of shares in the game publisher.
What’s more, as of November 4, Vivendi owns 24.059 of share capital – including 21.296 percent of voting rights.
While Vivendi has previously insisted it has no intentions of staging a hostile takeover, it sure seems like that’s what we’re building up to.
Back in September, they even expressed an interest in bagging a seat on Ubisoft’s board of directors – with a spokesperson for Vivendi saying they ‘feel it would be normal as the main shareholder to have a seat on the board’.
Vivendi actually had the chance to at least seek a seat during the annual shareholders meeting later that month, though for some reason decided not to.
While many of Ubisoft’s measures were passed, Vivendi abstained from voting on resolutions, leading Ubisoft to describe Vivendi’s actions as ‘systematic obstruction, impeding the proper functioning of the company’.
By all accounts, Ubisoft wish very much to remain an independent company – I imagine they’ll continue to spurn Vivendi’s advances.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.