Ubisoft CEO still opposes hostile Vivendi takeover

Ubisoft chief executive Yves Guillemot said in a conference call with analysts that his company still opposes a hostile move by Vivendi to take ownership of Ubisoft.

The French video game company reported $1.6 billion in revenue and an operating profit of $146 million for the fiscal year ended March 31. During the call, Guillemot was asked by an analyst what the company’s position was on giving a board seat to Vivendi, which has acquired more than 15 percent of Ubisoft’s stock since last October.

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“There is nothing new,” Guillemot said. “Vivendi has a reputation of taking control of many companies. They want to do the same with ours. We will defend ourselves because this will be in the favor of their shareholders instead of all the shareholders. As for making sure they don’t have board members, it will be the decision of the shareholders.”

Guillemot has been running Ubisoft for 30 years, starting as a family business. Guillemot and his four brothers own about 9 percent of the company. Ubisoft has more than 10,000 employees today, and it has big hits such as Tom Clancy’s The Division and Far Cry Primal.

On March 29, Ubisoft named Didier Crespel as a lead independent director.