Ubisoft requests Vivendi support for key resolutions
22 SEP 2017
Ubisoft [EPA:UBI] has requested that Vivendi [EPA:VIV] vote to approve resolutions regarding employees ownership of shares at Friday’s AGM, the Financial Times reported (21 September).
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that the proposed resolution is essential to attracting, incentivizing and retaining its staff as it faces competition from Electronic Arts, Facebook, Activision and Google.
Vivendi, as Ubisoft’s largest investor with a 27% stake in the company and 24.5% of the voting rights, is reported to be positioning itself for a hostile takeover of the French video game maker. On 20 November, Vivendi can opt to benefit from France’s Florange law under which registered shareholders who have owned stock for two years or more can have two votes for each of their shares. Doubling of its voting rights would take it beyond the 30% mandatory bid threshold, requiring it to launch a bid for the rest of Ubisoft.
Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family wants the company to keep its independence and earlier this month in response to Vivendi's advances the family increased its stake in the company to 15.35% and now holds 20.02% of the company's voting rights.