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[CNBC] Activist investor to push Ubisoft to sell itself to private equity firms or to Tencent

LectureMaster

LectureMaster

Gold Member
www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org

With shares at 10-year lows, Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft faces questions over its future

Gaming firm Ubisoft is facing questions over its future amid a lackluster games pipeline and pressure from an activist investor to sell itself and go private.
www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org

Following the decision to delay its upcoming Assassin's Creed game, AJ Investments, an activist investor with a less than 1% stake in Ubisoft, said that it was working with other shareholders in the company to push the French firm to sell itself to private equity firms or to Chinese gaming giant Tencent.
Tencent owns a roughly 10% stake in Ubisoft.
Click here to view interactive content

In an open letter last week, AJ Investments said it had gathered the support of 10% of Ubisoft shareholders for its pressure campaign, adding that it intends to cooperate with proxy advisory firms in preparation for voting at the company's next general meeting. CNBC could not independently verify this figure.
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LectureMaster

LectureMaster

Gold Member
This
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Digital-Aftertaste

Digital-Aftertaste

Member
no one wants to buy their mess, a lot of studios across the world. The management nightmare of that alone is laughable, and no company wants the bad publicity of shutting down a good number of those studios. Sad truth is that most companies are just waiting for a bankruptcy in order to bid on the assets (ip's, studios, etc.)
 
kubricks

kubricks

Member
Please go ahead.
And they suggest selling to Tencent? Even better! You know CCP has a long tradition of loving vocal minority and activitist right? Right??

I love seeing activitist trying to run a company, the shitshow is often spectacular.
That Melborne cafe which demanded "man tax" will never not be funny, I need something at a bigger scale to laugh at.
 
Kataploom

Kataploom

Gold Member
What if the UN, Blackrock and these groups are being controlled by Beijing in the shadows so all this DEI bs we're seeing is just a way for them to bankrupt western big corporations in order to get them for cheap and they're all falling victim of their own greed for "cheap credit"? 🤔

Just here doing some overthinking, just for fun lol
 
Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
TransTrender said:
Why would anyone listen to this pipsqueak?
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Why not? First of all we don’t know if the percentage of shares of his or Tencent’s translate to the same voting %, or these are supervoting shares?

Second - why not? The pitch would probably be: „Company lost 90% of value in a few years, right now you can sell at X, but Tendent might be willing to buy at X+Y, would you accept?”.
 
Soodanim

Soodanim

Member
CNBC could not independently verify this figure.
Click to expand...
Are we just ignoring this line, GAF? Add that to "activist investor" with absolutely no explanation and you've got a thread of people reacting to nothing but buzzwords.
 
Mr Reasonable

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
genesisblock said:
Remember, according to Pachter. "Incels", despite being an exremw minority can affect the sales of AAA marketing game. Why not the shareholder with less than 1% stake?
Click to expand...

I'd say that given that we've all heard the opinion of this sub 1% owner, that through some lenses you could describe this as a good example of a minority influencing the discussion.
 
FewRope

FewRope

Member
Modern audiences are way too busy wasting days on TikTok to play games, keep going for it tho, looks like it's going well for the industry as a whole
 
GHG

GHG

Gold Member
the_master said:
Seems like a pretty bad outcome for gamers and for Ubisoft. What do this supposedly activists want to fight for?
Click to expand...

Claiming they are an "activist" investment firm is a misrepresentation of what they are and how they operate:

We made the investment in Ubisoft based on the know-how of the gaming sector at a time when the company presented the restructuring of its business. Ubisoft had a very tough 2022 last year as several games were not released due to delays. The operating loss was more than €500 million, which is why Ubisoft shares fell to their lowest value in years. We think that Ubisoft has a very good year ahead, as several IPs have to release new games like Assassin’s Creed, Avatar or Tommy Clancy’s Division.The prediction for this year is 400m operating profit and therefore we believe that Ubisoft shares will grow.

We started buying Ubisoft shares at the beginning of 2023 at prices around 20 USD, if Ubisoft executes as they expect, the value of the shares could be 40-45 EUR by the end of the year
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aj-invest.com

Overview of investments - aj-invest.com

Ubisoft AJ Investments and partners are shareholder of Ubisoft we launched Open letter against current management led by Guillemot family. Ubisoft Open letter follow up here 28.10.2024 Ubisoft AJ Investments and partners are shareholder of Ubisoft we launched Open letter against current...
aj-invest.com aj-invest.com

AJ Investments is a private equity firm that focuses on areas of business opportunity. Our strategy consists of an active approach to investments in order to identify and solve problems in the management of companies that negatively affect their performance. We select investment opportunities with high growth potential and focus on the quality and dynamics of these investments.

At a time when many companies choose a conservative approach and avoid risky investments, we, on the contrary, see these situations as unique opportunities for investment. We take advantage of events and take such steps that will help correct and optimize the running of companies. Our proactive approaches enable us to bring about positive change and increase the value of investments for our clients.
Click to expand...

aj-invest.com

About our story - aj-invest.com

AJ Investments is a private equity firm that focuses on areas of business opportunity. Our strategy consists of an active approach to investments in order to identify and solve problems in the management of companies that negatively affect their performance. We select investment opportunities...
aj-invest.com aj-invest.com


In essence they are your run of the mill fund but instead of taking a diversified approach, they tend to go all-in on a select few companies in an attempt to seek alpha.

Based on the fact that they started buying ubisoft shares in 2023, they are likely to currently be underwater anywhere in the range of 40-60%. They are now attempting to pressure ubisoft in to a sale that will enable them and any other investors to get as much as their money back as possible. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
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Angry_Megalodon

Angry_Megalodon

Member
Digital-Aftertaste said:
no one wants to buy their mess, a lot of studios across the world. The management nightmare of that alone is laughable, and no company wants the bad publicity of shutting down a good number of those studios. Sad truth is that most companies are just waiting for a bankruptcy in order to bid on the assets (ip's, studios, etc.)
Click to expand...


100% this

The vultures are circling but no one wants that poisoned piece yet.
 
Wildebeest

Wildebeest

Member
Chinese people don't want to own too many Chinese assets because they have a lower level of trust due to perceived fraud. I don't think you have to look at a conspiracy for tencent owning western companies.
 
O

Ozriel

M$FT
Gamerfan81 said:
Leave the politics and social issues alone, just make games where people enjoy them.
Click to expand...

‘Politics and Social Issues’

Outlaws: lead character wasn’t beautiful enough

AC Shadows: Black man put as co-lead in a game set in Japan.

None of those are the real issues. This is all about the game’s quality. Outlaws was a middling title, and Shadows looks to have been held back for its own good after the failure of Outlaws.

They’ve also been cooked by a desperate dive into live service titles that have failed.
 
ToadMan

ToadMan

Member
Robot Carnival said:
what's an "activist investor" in this context? I don't really understand it. like, are they trying to make the company more conservative or more LGBT+ friendly that sorta thing? or are they just trying to change the direction of the company in order to get the most out of their shares?
Click to expand...

In this context they're someone who has seen the share price tank - the value of their investment with it - and believe that a buy out will raise the stock value to a reasonable level.

Activist investors are those who don't have an executive position in the company but enough of a stock holding to try and influence the direction of the company.
 
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diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
Robot Carnival said:
what's an "activist investor" in this context? I don't really understand it. like, are they trying to make the company more conservative or more LGBT+ friendly that sorta thing? or are they just trying to change the direction of the company in order to get the most out of their shares?
Click to expand...
An activist inventor, in this context, is the latter.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
Ozriel said:
‘Politics and Social Issues’

Outlaws: lead character wasn’t beautiful enough

AC Shadows: Black man put as co-lead in a game set in Japan.

None of those are the real issues. This is all about the game’s quality. Outlaws was a middling title, and Shadows looks to have been held back for its own good after the failure of Outlaws.

They’ve also been cooked by a desperate dive into live service titles that have failed.
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Look, the companies themselves publicly and proudly claim that DEI is very important to their operations. Here is Ubisoft page on it:
www.ubisoft.com

Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility | Ubisoft

Learn more about how we are putting D&I at the heart of everything we do with a focus on colleagues, content, culture and community.
www.ubisoft.com

They LITERALLY say that it is "at the heart of what they do." One of the main points of that page is how they "embed representation" in their "content." Note: CONTENT. So, somehow they get it both ways, they can claim that DEI is super important, but then they have defenders who say it has nothing to do with their game output or how the games perform.
 
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Angry_Megalodon

Angry_Megalodon

Member
diffusionx said:
Look, the companies themselves publicly and proudly claim that DEI is very important to their operations. Here is Ubisoft page on it:
www.ubisoft.com

Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility | Ubisoft

Learn more about how we are putting D&I at the heart of everything we do with a focus on colleagues, content, culture and community.
www.ubisoft.com

They LITERALLY say that it is "at the heart of what they do." One of the main points of that page is how they "embed representation" in their "content." Note: CONTENT. So, somehow they get it both ways, they can claim that DEI is super important, but then they have defenders who say it has nothing to do with their game output or how the games perform.
Click to expand...


The gaslighting is beyond pathetic at this point.

DEI is the root problem because it impacts every department and operation within the company. What we see in videogames is just the tip of the iceberg. It doesn't take a genius to realize that for a company with 20K employees the output of Ubisoft is lacking.
 
BlackTron

BlackTron

Gold Member
Angry_Megalodon said:
DEI is the root problem because it impacts every department and operation within the company. What we see in videogames is just the tip of the iceberg. It doesn't take a genius to realize that for a company with 20K employees the output of Ubisoft is lacking.
Click to expand...

JFC this. Everyone acts like DEI just means people don't like it because the main character looks different. Wrong -DEI results in hiring based on weighted attributes other than merit which results in shit games full of shit decisions that sane people can't argue with for fear of the HR shitstorm.
 
Woopah

Woopah

Member
Robot Carnival said:
what's an "activist investor" in this context? I don't really understand it. like, are they trying to make the company more conservative or more LGBT+ friendly that sorta thing? or are they just trying to change the direction of the company in order to get the most out of their shares?
Click to expand...
kubricks said:
Please go ahead.
And they suggest selling to Tencent? Even better! You know CCP has a long tradition of loving vocal minority and activitist right? Right??

I love seeing activitist trying to run a company, the shitshow is often spectacular.
That Melborne cafe which demanded "man tax" will never not be funny, I need something at a bigger scale to laugh at.
Click to expand...
Activist investors are those that push a company to follow a particular strategy. It's not limited to social activitists.
 
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