After a potential corporate takeover of Ubisoft last year never materialized, Vivendi has announced its commitment to divest all remaining shares in the former by March 2019.
Vivendi has announced that it will be selling the remaining shares that it has in Ubisoft. While we knew that it was coming, the news of this Vivendi Ubisoft share sale has now had some extra details added to it. A press release confirms that the company will divest its shares in March 2019 and that it will not purchase any Ubisoft shares within the next 5 years. While Vivendi decided to exit Ubisoft officially earlier this year and to let Tencent in on a slice of the pie instead, the details of the share divestment are now clearer and it looks like Ubisoft is in a good position after buying back the majority of its initial shares.
The divestment of those Ubisoft shares was expected considering the circumstances in which Vivendi jumped ship this year. While it had been speculated that Vivendi would be in prime position for a corporate takeover of the company, that never materialized, and it ended up selling its minority share when all was said and done. That exit by Vivendi allowed Tencent, another huge market player, to step in to fill the hole in Ubisoft’s heart. As reported by PCGamer, the replacement of Vivendi with the Chinese tour de force would likely open up Ubisoft to one of the largest consumer markets in the world.
Now that the dust has settled on this transfer, it looks like Vivendi will be packing up the last of its things on March 7,2019, and it has reaffirmed that it will be selling each share for €66. As to what Vivendi will move on to next, it’s unclear. However, Ubisoft is likely resting easy with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey taking a running leap at the rest of the world very soon. The company looks like it’s currently in a strong position with its current partners, and we will likely start seeing the long-term effects of its shareholding change after Vivendi has fully divested its interest.
