While worldwide commerce governing bodies and fans keep their eyes heavily on Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, the not so sleeping giant of the gaming world in Tencent continues to make moves nearly unchecked. Tencent Holdings Ltd has now announced plans to raise its stake in French video game group Ubisoft Entertainment, most known for franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Tom Clancy games, and more.
Chinese gaming and social networking giant Tencent currently owns a 5% stake in Ubisoft (bought in 2018), but has recently reached out to the company’s founding Guillemot family to express interest in increasing their stake according to an initial report from Reuters. Ubisoft is currently valued at approximately $5.3 billion at the time of writing this and it is unclear by how much Tencent is looking to increase their stake. Given Tencent’s past track record of slowly increasing stakes in a company until they own the majority, there is a good chance that they’re aiming for a similar result here as well.
According to the report, Tencent could offer up to around $100/share to increase their stake, with offers expected to be made to both the Guillemot family and public shareholders. At the current time the Guillemot family is the largest individual shareholder with 15%, Tencent holds 5%, and public shareholders hold the remaining 80%.
Image from: Reuters
