Ubisoft is up for sale but maybe not to Microsoft or Sony
Activision Blizzard may not be the last publisher to be bought by a larger company, as private equity firms take an interest in Ubisoft.
When Microsoft first announced it was intending to buy Activision Blizzard it was not only the biggest acquisition the games industry had ever seen but, surprisingly, the biggest Microsoft has ever made (if it goes through). Not only that but it let the genie out of the bottle and suddenly no company is too big to be bought.
Ubisoft is around half the size of Activision Blizzard, but still one of the biggest third party publishers in the business. The minute news of the Activision Blizzard acquisition broke though, they were busy fielding questions from investors as to what they were doing to make themselves seem more desirable to suitors.
Whatever they did it seems to have worked, as reports suggest that multiple private equity firms are currently considering a purchase – even though so far there’s no sign of Microsoft, Sony, or any other games company being part of the bidding war.
Ubisoft is currently in a very similar situation to Activision Blizzard, in that they’re coming off a difficult few years of poor results and damning revelations about systemic sexism and poor workplace conditions.
As a result, their share price has dropped a massive 41% over the last year, giving it a market value of around £4.04 billion. That’s less than the £5.9 billion Microsoft paid for Bethesda, despite Ubisoft usually being considered a much larger publisher.
That means they’re currently a lot cheaper to buy than they would have been a few years ago, which given the impetus brought on by Activision Blizzard has got the vultures circling.
However, there’s no suggestion that Microsoft, Sony, or any other
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