Already a 5% shareholder of Ubisoft, the Chinese giant Tencent met the Guillemot family last May to present its proposal to increase its stake in the company, according to four sources familiar with the matter. The story does not say how much Tencent plans to increase its stake in Ubisoft, but its objective would be to become the main shareholder, a title which today belongs to the Guillemot family, which holds 15% of the capital.
On the other hand, Reuters suggests that Tencent would be ready to offer up to 100 euros per share to prevent any competition from making a better offer. A more than advantageous proposition (the Ubisoft share is at 44 euros) which even surpasses that of 95 dollars per share made by Microsoft to seize Activision Blizzard at the insane price of 69 billion dollars. In 2018, Tencent spent 66 euros per share to take 5% of Ubisoft.
“Tencent is very committed to completing the deal as Ubisoft is a very important strategic asset for Tencent.“, commented one of the sources of Reuters. As its growth opportunities slow in China, in particular due to local restrictions on the playing time of minors or the validation of new releases, Tencent is increasingly investing in companies. foreign companies, when it does not simply acquire them. In 2021, Tencent’s video game revenues in China fell by 1% while those from abroad increased by 4%.
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