According to Bloomberg, Tencent and Ubisoft’s founder, the Guillemot family, are planning to move Ubisoft assets to a new venture as a way to boost the company’s value.
The Guillemot family currently owns 14% of Ubisoft shares and Tencent owns 9.99% of shares, and the report from Bloomberg could suggest that creating a new venture and moving some of Ubisoft’s IPs over will allow Tencent to own a stake in the new entity while gaining more control over the IPs. As of yet, the decision is not final, and it isn’t clear what will happen to the remaining Ubisoft IP that won’t be carried over to the new venture.
The Guillemot family currently owns 14% of Ubisoft shares, and Tencent owns 9.99% of shares. A report from Bloomberg suggests that creating a new venture and moving some of Ubisoft’s intellectual properties to it will allow Tencent to own a stake in the new entity while gaining more control over the intellectual properties. As of yet, the decision is not final, and it is not clear what will happen to the remaining Ubisoft intellectual properties that will not be carried over to the new venture.
Over the year, Ubisoft’s share price has seen a decline following the release of many games that were considered underwhelming, and the company share price which reached €84.60 in February 2021 has now dropped to €11.41 following the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Shadows being delayed. But prior to the announcement of the delay, they had shut down its live service game Xdefiant and the troubling launch performance of Star Wars Outlaws.
In terms of keeping Ubisoft stabilized, it was last October that it seems Tencent and Guillemots family have been speaking with the advisors following the year the value market was more than half, and the discussion was about the possibility of the pair teaming up to take Ubisoft private, but these talks were early in the stage at the time. While no decision or direction has been reached, it seems Tencent and Guillemot may be looking for other options as they may be waiting for the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to decide the fate of the company.
With the delay of Assassin’s Creed Shadow, it seems Ubisoft is trying hard to make sure the game does well in release before it could make any drastic decision with the Guillemot family and Tencent by moving their assets to a new company. In the meantime, it’s best to wait for more details after the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadow on March 20, 2025.
