On this Thursday, September 29th, Ubisoft will have an annual investor’s meeting and will determine who gets a seat on its board of directors. This seemingly boring business meeting is dripping with drama, however, since Vivendi has been slowly eating up Ubisoft stock in an assumed attempt to take Ubisoft over. Vivendi currently sits around 20% of Ubisoft’s stock, but have stated repeatedly they don’t intend to take Ubisoft over despite taking over Gameloft in a very similar fashion earlier this year.
Ubisoft isn’t going down without a fight however. They’ve been slowly seeking out and buying up any stock out there, possibly beating Vivendi to the punch. Spending $137.9 million, Ubisoft increased their stock holdings by 3.2%, which has them around 15% total depending on the market.
It all comes down to Thursday, and what Vivendi can buy up. If Vivendi gets some votes on Ubisoft’s board, they’ll have direct influence on Ubisoft’s decisions going forward. If they don’t, Vivendi could continue their crusade to buy up Ubisoft stock. If Vivendi reaches 30%, French law requires Vivendi to put in a buyout bid. This means Vivendi could offer to buy anyone’s Ubisoft stock for a high price until they had enough to control the entire company.
