Tencent leads investment enabling Ubisoft to buy out Vivendi
Chinese technology giant Tencent has bought a stake in Ubisoft.
The stake has been bought from Vivendi, a French company owned by billionaire Vincent Bollore.
Vivendi’s stake in the company amounted to 27.3% worth $24.5bn which will be bought out by Ubisoft. Ubisoft will pay around twice what Vivendi initially bought the shares for.
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Tencent has invested €370mn ($457mn) in a 5% stake and the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan will spend €250mn (€309mn) on a 3.4% stake, in order to help Ubisoft with the buyout.
It had previously been thought that Vivendi would take over Ubisoft, however the two will now be able to form a strategic partnership.
Ubisoft is a French gaming company best known for the Assassin’s Creed games.Tencent is the biggest company in Asia and has a market value of $540bn. The company has been investing in digital content recently which is in increasing demand in China. Its e-publishing platform, China Literature, has seen a 15-fold profit increase and is making deals to diversify its entertainment offering.
