I'll also add that alongside Tencent not legally being allowed to increase their stake in Ubisoft (Core) beyond 9.99% until 2030. They also cannot change their stake in Ubisoft (Sub) until 2030. Unless Ubisoft no longer owns a majority of the new subsidiary voting rights and share capital. But in addition to that, Ubisoft "may not" cease to hold a majority of the new subsidiaries voting rights and share capital for a 2 year period. Ubisoft post transaction will own 75% of Ubisoft Sub with full control over it.
Other benefits include: Right of first refusal to the benefit of Ubisoft, a right of first offer to the benefit of Tencent, tag-along right to the benefit of Tencent and drag-along right to the benefit of Ubisoft. Call option to the benefit of Ubisoft and put option to the benefit of Tencent in the event of a change of control of Ubisoft approved by its Board of Directors.
In essence, Tencent is locked into a minority ownership of both Ubisoft Core and Ubisoft Sub for the next 5 years. Inside of Ubisoft Core, the Guillemot Family remain the largest shareholders at 15% and unless someone other than Tencent attempts a hostile takeover it will likely remain that way for the foreseeable, especially as Tencent has just given them a 1.1bn injection and AC Shadows is selling well, now if they can sort their pipeline out for the next 5 years is another question.
Ubisoft Sub (which consists of just AC/FC/R6) is valued even higher than Ubisoft Core was before this change (when it included AC/FC/R6). Which goes to show where Yves and Tencent believe the actual value is, and makes me worried about any studio/developer inside of Ubisoft Core and I think we will see layoffs, closures, IP sell offs there, especially as AC/FC/R6 teams have been moved over to Ubisoft Sub to protect them.
Yves has basically given himself a safety net for at least the next 5 years and it feels like Tencent has made nothing more than a financial investment into Ubisoft's biggest sellers (AC/FC/R6), one which is valued higher than Ubisoft as a whole, if AC Shadows was a failure then Tencent wouldn't be investing so much for "only" 25% while still allowing Ubisoft "exclusive control" over the new entity.
Ubisoft before this change was valued at around €1.6bn in market cap and that was when it included AC/FC/R6. This new subsidiary which is only AC/FC/R6 is valued at €4bn. Tencent paid €1.16bn for 25% of this subsidiary. Ubisoft to reach this valuation would have had to sell at a 150% premium, Lol. So if AC Shadows "flopped" then why is Tencent paying almost the entire price of Ubisoft's market cap for only 25% of a subsidiary which only includes AC/FC/R6. Clearly Tencent sees AC (along with FC/R6) as the big money makers and doesn't give a fuck about the rest, Lol.
I know a lot of people hate Ubisoft, hate Yves, but Yves seems to have "won" again, Lol. At least for 5 years.
Kind of funny to see the East as the saviour too when Tencent (a Chinese company) in effect has basically just said (in business terms) "We only care about Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six, fuck the rest" Lol. Thankfully Tencent keeps hands off with their Western investments, though I honestly believe this is only because they're a Chinese company and they know Western Governments would get twitchy if they started interfering too much in billion dollar western corps but I'm under no illusion that Tencent is some saviour of the gaming industry, stop putting faith in billion dollar corporations, Lol. I don't want Tencent or Yves in control of Ubisoft.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 28 March 2025
