Ubisoft Can Remain Independent, But Will Review Acquisition Offers

The start of the year kicked off with significant acquisitions. Microsoft with Activision Blizzard and Sony with Bungie set the tone of what the gaming industry may shape up to be in 2022. Many fans were hoping that their company of choice would acquire their favorite studio, and studios themselves were prepping for acquisition offers. Ubisoft has not disclosed this to the public, but it has mentioned it to its investors. 

According to information from GamesIndustry.biz, consolidation was brought up during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. CEO Yves Guillemot said,

Ubisoft’s assets have never been so strong at a time when the value of assets has never been so high.

Yves Guillemot

This is evident when one looks at the performance of their recent games. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has earned over $1 billion in revenue, and there is still more content to be added to the game. Dawn of Ragnarok, the next piece of DLC, will add over 35 hours of gameplay and will increase this revenue figure. 

The studio is not entirely shut to offers of acquisition. Guillemot went on to say,

Having said that, if there were an offer to buy us, the board of directors would, of course, review it in the interest of all stakeholders.

Yves Guillemot

The question arose as to why such an offer had not yet been made, to which CFO Frédérick Duguet replied,

We will not speculate on why people haven’t made any offer.

Frédérick Duguet

Guillemot stepped in at this time to specify

if any offer was made.

Frédérick Duguet

Absolutely. So I can’t comment on that any further. What we can say is, as we mentioned, we have high-value assets. We have the scale to remain independent and create very meaningful value in the future because we have scale in terms of the workforce, as well as engineering, technology, IPs, and totally engaged communities.”

Frédérick Duguet

This would seem like the wiser option, as opposed to the studio’s actions when Ubisoft was fighting off a potential takeover from Vivendi. It could be the news of the previous acquisitions has changed the minds of the management to consider more options.