Ubisoft leadership again declined to comment on persistent rumors and reports of buyout considerations at the company, with Chinese giant Tencent reportedly in the mix as of October 2024, in a conference call held following the news of another delay to Assassin's Creed Shadows, now launching March 2025.
CFO Frederick Duguet did, however, say "we will inform the market if and when a transaction materializes," seemingly acknowledging the direction as one of "several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft assets and franchises," or at least not shutting down the possibility outright. The exact nature of this would-be transaction was not defined, but the context is clear.
In the first question of the call's Q&A portion, Duguet and CEO Yves Guillemot were asked about the company's statement on the new options it's considering. As Guillemot repeated at the beginning of the call:
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"With the appointment of leading advisors, we are actively exploring various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders. We are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value for Ubisoft assets and franchises. This process will be overseen by the independent members of the board of directors."
This is, of course, a lot of business gobbledygook – so much so that one conference attendee requested clarification on the "vague phrase." They asked about "press reports of detailed discussions with Tencent" and wondered if stakeholders should now read that there is "some sort of proposal which the independent board members are going to review against other options." Duguet's response was cagey but not empty.
"The objective of this process is to unlock the best value potential of our assets to the benefit of our stakeholders, and to foster the best conditions to create great games in a fast-evolving market," Duguet reiterated. "That's the overall objective. That's why we mentioned that we appointed leading advisors. We are currently actively exploring different options and we can't say more. Of course, we won't comment on specific rumors that we've seen in the market. But we are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft assets and franchises. We will inform the market if and when a transaction materializes."
Asked about "concrete courses of action or scenarios that are being considered" later in the call, Duguet said "we are limited in what we can say today, but we have started a process." Guillemot chimed in to add, "with advisors, so that's one more step."
Another attendee asked what these advisors are currently doing. Duguet responded: "In terms of what stage the advisors are at today, we can only say that they've started working. In terms of initial findings, we expect good progress in the coming months."
Additionally, Ubisoft was asked if the news that Tencent has been added to the US Department of Defense's list of companies allegedly working with China's military would affect its plans at all. You'll be shocked to hear that Guillemot simply said "we can't comment on what was said."
Reports of buyout discussions have been consistent and detailed enough to reasonably suggest that a sale is among the options Ubisoft is considering, even if the founding Guillemots are reportedly angling to maintain control of the company, but the company ardently refuses to confirm it. For now, it's becoming increasingly clear that Ubisoft has put a lot of its eggs in the basket of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which will need to be quite a runaway success to pull the company out of its slump.
Ubisoft says it's "deeply disturbed" by abuse allegations at support studio that contributed to Assassin's Creed Shadows, Dark Souls, The Last of Us, and more.
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