For a number of years, media powerhouse Vivendi was slowly but surely acquiring more shares in game developer Ubisoft. For some time, there was fear that Vivendi would eventually control enough stock in the company to begin initiating a hostile takeover of Ubisoft, which would have put the future of the publisher/developer into question. While it’s been known for sometime that Ubisoft’s biggest fears are now behind it, the final nail was put in the coffin today to prevent any chance of Vivendi seizing control.

Today, Vivendi sold off its remaining stock in Ubisoft (almost 6% of the company) for 429 million euros, which equates to a 220 million euro profit. It’s been known for a few months of Vivendi’s intentions to remove itself completely from Ubisoft, but with the removal of all its shares, the deed is now done.

Ubisoft, while resistant to what was being deemed a ‘hostile takeover’ by Vivendi, came close to losing control of the company back in 2016. During this time, Vivendi also took ownership of GameLoft, a French video game publisher specializing in mobile gaming that owns 20% of Ubisoft’s total shares. At the time, Vivendi stated it was delaying taking over the company, while Ubisoft did its best to seek long-term investors in an effort to prevent the takeover from happening.

Any chance of a takeover was put to rest in March 2018, when Tencent invested heavily in Ubisoft and thus prevented Vivendi from acquiring any more shares in the company. The deal struck by both Tencent and the Ontario Teacher’s Pension was worth more than double the amount Vivendi had put into the company, with the deal ending the takeover, valued at nearly $2.5 billion dollars.

While Vivendi might still have its hands in other sectors of game development, Ubisoft won’t have to worry about making sure its franchises are being taken care of now. Along with the upcoming release of The Division 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is still expected to receive free monthly updates, while Rainbow Six Siege will continue to push its own content forward with the game’s fourth year of DLC about to get underway.

Source: Reuters