Ubisoft, France’s most prominent video game maker, is still open to other partners after a deal in which China’s Tencent will increase its stake in the company, its co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said on Thursday.
Guillemot’s comments, made at a closed press event, the contents of which the company asked not to be made public ahead of an online showcase event on Saturday, came after a difficult day for Ubisoft shares, which fell 17 % after the group announced that Tencent would become its largest single shareholder with a total stake of 11%.
The deal values the “Assassin’s Creed” creator at about $10 billion.
“We remain independent and can act with any outside company if we want,” said Guillemot, who, along with his four brothers, founded Ubisoft in 1986. “That was a great deal with Tencent,” he added. “We can do whatever we want.”
Operators and analysts have said the Tencent deal, in which the world’s largest games firm by revenue enters into a shareholders’ pact with the Guillemots, has removed the speculative appeal of Ubisoft shares.
The group has long been seen as a takeover target as the Guillemots hold a minority stake in the group. Still, the Guillemot brothers managed to fend off a raid by French tycoon Vincent Bollore via his media group Vivendi.
Smaller mobile video game maker Gameloft, formerly led by Yves Guillemot’s brother Michel, was gobbled up by Vivendi six years ago.
The secretive siblings, sons of agricultural traders from a small town in Brittany, western France, have vowed to protect their independence, a goal which Yves Guillemot, 62, reasserted on Thursday. “Our first intention is to own our destiny,” he said.