The Guillemot family, which founded mobile-gaming group Gameloft, said it has decided to sell the bulk of its shares in Gameloft “with regret” to Vivendi, which last week controlled about 56 percent of Gameloft’s voting rights, French media reported. Vivendi made an unsolicited takeover approach for the games editor earlier this year.
“The family maintains that Vivendi’s hostile approach goes against the best interest of Gameloft, both for its activity and for its teams,” the Guillemot family said in a statement. The Guillemot family held 21.7 percent of Gameloft’s capital on 4 April. No details were provided as to exactly how many shares will be sold to Vivendi.
Vivendi said last week that Gameloft would benefit from its industrial and financial backing to grow. It reopened its bid for Gameloft until 15 June on the same terms to the EUR 8 per share offer it made last month, valuing the company at around EUR 700 million, and said that it would appoint a majority of Gameloft’s board of directors on 29 June to reflect the results of its tender offer. The Guillemot family failed in a court bid to block Vivendi’s tender offer for Gameloft.
A resolution in the battle for Gameloft sets the stage for a bigger tussle over Ubisoft Entertainment, also run by the Guillemots, according to analysts, the Wall Street Journal reported. Vivendi owns 17.7 percent of Ubisoft and is seeking board representation, but said in a stock market filing on 29 April that it has no plans to seek control of Ubisoft or submit a public offer for its shares for the next six months. Ubisoft, which is known for franchises such as “Assassin’s Creed,” has a market capitalization of USD 3.7 billion. It has so far been hostile to Vivendi’s advances.
In 2013, Vivendi sold most of its controlling stake in videogames giant Activision Blizzard as part of a number of asset sales to boost a sagging share price, leaving it to focus on the TV and music side of its business at the time. The French group subsequently said it would reenter the gaming space and work to find synergies between the three media.
