Tencent and Guillemot family considering new venture with Ubisoft assets - report
To boost company value.
Chinese conglomerate Tencent and Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family are reportedly considering a new venture using a foundation of Ubisoft assets.
According to Bloomberg (paywall), the two companies will create this venture and then move select Ubisoft assets over, with sources close to the matter stating this is an attempt to give Ubisoft's value an overall boost.
Tencent and Ubisoft are said to be in the process of evaluating which assets to include in this venture. "A potential deal would allow Tencent to own a stake in the venture and gain more control over some of Ubisoft’s intellectual properties, while boosting its video game business outside of China," the report reads.
At the time of writing, no final decisions have been made with regard to this alleged venture between Tencent and Ubisoft. However, we already knew Ubisoft was looking at ways to try and increase its value.
As outlined earlier this month, the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry maker has appointed advisors to "review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders". Meanwhile, last October, it was reported Tencent and Ubisoft were considering a buyout. A similar report was then released in December.
Last year was a particularly bumpy one for Ubisoft. The company suffered at least three rounds of layoffs, as well as staff walkouts, and disappointing sales for titles such as Star Wars Outlaws. Ubisoft additionally pulled the plug on live-service shooter XDefiant, and shuttered a number of studios.
In the last week, Ubisoft delayed the next instalment in its Assassin's Creed series - Shadows - once again. The upcoming game was initially due to release in 2024, before its launch was then pushed to 14th February.
Assassin's Creed Shadows will now release on 20th March, Ubisoft announced last week.