Ubisoft has made a formal announcement on the company’s next steps as it mulls its future direction.
Yesterday, Insider Gaming shared a rumor that Ubisoft and Tencent have deliberately paused talks of a buyout. This is because the Guillemots are hoping that they will be in a better position to negotiate if Assassin’s Creed Shadows turns out to be a success. Ubisoft seemed to have made this press release to clearly debunk this and any other rumors and speculation completely.
As posted on Globe News Wire, Ubisoft shared this press release:
“Following the strategic and execution reviews initiated by the Executive Committee a few months ago, Ubisoft is taking decisive steps to reshape the Group in order to deliver best-in-class player experiences, enhance operational efficiency and maximize value creation.
Ubisoft announced today that it has appointed leading advisors to review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders. This process will be overseen by the independent members of the Board of Directors. Ubisoft will inform the market in accordance with applicable regulations if and once a transaction materializes.”
Now some gamers are claiming that this statement sounds so formal that they seem to be misleading upon its meaning, but if you were paying attention to the timeline, we are being given a clear explanation of what happened before and what happened now. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that the company was going through a formal board review last September in response to accusations that the Guillemots were colluding with Tencent.
Gamers may only see Ubisoft releasing failing games, and may sincerely not care what goes on in the company. But the situation here is that the investors are angry at the Guillemots, and so Ubisoft’s founding family has to demonstrate they are acting to fix the company in complete good faith.
So, in September, that formal board review came in the form of their Board of Directors forming an Executive Committee. Today, over three months later, Ubisoft will have independent members of their Board – AKA, not the Guillemots – make the decisions on what the company will do next. It’s these Board members, not the Guillemots, who will get to decide on a buyout with Tencent, or any other potential options.
Sadly, that does also mean the door is open for Ubisoft’s investors to close the company and sell off their assets, like THQ. But they may also choose to break the conglomerate up into separate companies, like the current owner of the THQ trademark, Embracer Group. Ubisoft also mentioned Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ delay in this press release. Their intention in doing so seems to be to demonstrate to investors that the Guillemots aren’t holding out for the game to give them a leg up.
Even with Yves Guillemot front and center in these announcements and financial reports, it seems that the Guillemot family has already lost a lot of control over their own company. We may see soon enough, even before Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ release, what happens to the brothers, as well as to Ubisoft as a whole.
