‘Assassin’s Creed’ Maker Carves Out €4 Billion Unit with Tencent
Ubisoft Entertainment SA’s US-listed shares soared as much as 20% after the video game maker said it will carve out a unit including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six into a subsidiary with an enterprise value of about €4 billion ($4.3 billion).
Tencent Holdings Ltd. will invest €1.16 billion to acquire a 25% stake in the new entity, which will hold licenses for the intellectual property of the games in exchange for a royalty, the Paris-based video game maker said in a statement on Thursday.
The deal represents a vote of confidence from Tencent, which already holds a 10% stake in Ubisoft, in the wake of a difficult few years since a pandemic-era lockdowns eased. The unit’s €4 billion valuation is higher than the group’s current enterprise value, implying Tencent believes the group’s shares are undervalued. It is the outcome of a process that started in January, after last year’s launch of Star Wars Outlaws disappointed and the release of the latest Assassin’s Creed installment was delayed.
The company received “multiple expressions of interest” leading to non-binding offers, Ubisoft Chief Financial Officer Frederick Duguet said in a call with reporters. The new unit’s valuation is the result of a “competitive process,” Duguet said.
The valuation “confirms that the group was severely undervalued,” Charles-Louis Planade, an analyst at Midcap Partners said in a phone interview. “The cash injection of over €1 billion is very significant, and solves the group’s financing problems,” he said.
“This is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious,” Ubisoft Chief Executive Officer Yves Guillemot said in the statement. Ubisoft will use the proceeds of the sale to pay down its debts and support other franchises.
The new subsidiary will include the teams working on the titles and will control the back catalog and any new games under development. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2025.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows launched on March 20 to a broadly positive reception. While the company has not revealed specific sales figures for the new game, in which players inhabit one of two fictional characters in feudal Japan, it said in a LinkedIn post that the launch surpassed previous installments. Early reviews averaged 82 out of 100, according to aggregator Metacritic.
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Ainda bem que Assassin's Creed: Black Lives Matter é um sucesso avassalador, de acordo com a Ubisoft. Imagina se fosse um fracasso...
Aí está a derradeira e desesperada tentativa de sobrevivência da empresa. Ainda que seja bem sucedida, a Ubisoft como conhecíamos acabou. A Tencent abocanhou uma fatia ainda maior das ações e, agora, poderá meter a colher no processo criativo dos jogos, já que a nova "entidade" detém a licença das propriedades intelectuais da Ubisoft.
Ironicamente, o meme se tornou realidade. É melhor Ubisoft ficar confortável e se acostumar com o fato de que não possui mais sua própria empresa.
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