Vivendi inches closer to hostile takeover of Ubisoft

Ubisoft has been fighting to keep hostile takeover from the French multimedia company, Vivendi, at bay for months now. Vivendi has been making unsolicited offers to Ubisoft executives, looking to buy their way to outvoting the Ubisoft CEO from keeping them out of Ubisoft.

Vivendi began at owning 10% of Ubisoft's shares, but they have slowly been taking more and more. In February they jumped to 15%, then to 20% in June and now, the multimedia company has jumped to owning 22.8% of Ubisoft, with 20% of the voting rights in their hands.

Vivendi is run by a billionaire named Vincent Bolloré, who has claimed that they were not “considering the launch of a public tender on Ubisoft,” or “considering acquiring control of the company," but “hoping to build a fruitful cooperation with Ubisoft.”

Oddly enough, these aren't the moves typically made by someone looking for cooperation. Especially if the co-founders don't want you there.

The Guillemot brothers, who founded Ubisoft in 1986, own about 9% of the company together, as well as 16% of voting rights, are reported to be vehemently opposed to Bolloré’s presence on the board and have been avidly seeking investors to keep Bolloré at bay.