Vivendi completes Ubisoft exit

Vivendi has sold the last tranche of its shares in gaming outfit Ubisoft. The media giant sold its remaining 5.87% of the company for €429 million, representing a capital gain on the investment of €220 million.

The sale means that Vivendi is no longer a Ubisoft shareholder and maintains its commitment to refrain from purchasing Ubisoft shares for a period of five years.

The overall sale of Vivendi’s interest in the gaming company amounted to €2 billion with a capital gain of €1.2 billion.

Vivendi still owns Gameloft, another French gaming outfit specialising in mobile games and, like Ubisoft, founded by the Guillemot family, which rigorously opposed Vivendi’s involvement with both companies. The company said it would continue to strengthen its position in the video games sector.

Vivendi had already sold the bulk of its stake in Ubisoft, in which it was at one time the single biggest shareholder, to investors including China’s Tencent.

The company built up its stake in Ubisoft from 2015, in line with a strategy of building up a position in the gaming industry alongside its acquisition of video site Dailymotion from Orange. Vivendi had previously progressively sold off a majority stake in US gaming giant Activision Blizzard.