The Guillemot family, who founded Ubisoft, have acquired a larger stake in the company in their continued efforts to fend off rival company Vivendi, according to a report by Reuters.
According to a filing with the AMF stock market regulator, the Guillemots now own 13.6 percent of Ubisoft’s shares while holding 20.02 percent of the company’s voting rights. Last year, the family only owned around 9% of the company’s shares.
This is in comparison to Vivendi’s stake, which the rival company has been gradually raising since 2015, of 27 percent of the share capital and 24.5 percent of the voting rights. Vivendi’s stake is quite a bit larger than that of the Guillemot’s, so the family have quite a long way to go before they can catch up.
The Guillemot family have called the actions of Vivendi “unsolicited and unwelcome.”
Last year, Vivendi was able to acquire a majority stake in Gameloft, another company founded by the Guillemots, and ended up taking over the company. And now, the Guillemots fear that Vivendi is attempting the same with Ubisoft.
[Source: Reuters via Games Industry]
