Ubisoft Founder Vows to Fend Off Vivendi's ‘Creeping Takeover’
- Vivendi accumulated 10 percent stakes in Ubisoft, Gameloft
- Ubisoft mulls defense strategy, potential new investors
The hottest fight at video-game maker Ubisoft Entertainment SA isn’t happening on the streets of Victorian London, where a killer in a black hat fends off the queen’s guards in the latest Assassin’s Creed. It’s in Yves Guillemot’s office, as the company founder prepares to take on Vivendi SA.
This month, Vivendi spent almost $500 million acquiring a 10 percent stake each in Ubisoft and Gameloft SE, a mobile-game developer also created by the Guillemot brothers. Only after the unsolicited approach did Vivendi Chairman Vincent Bollore, the French billionaire who first made a name for himself as an activist investor, get in touch to discuss possible synergies between their businesses, according to Guillemot, who is also chief executive officer.