Vivendi Ubisoft Takeover Will Not Happen In Next Six months, Company Says

French video game giant Ubisoft has recorded strong revenue in the recent past, thanks to a stable of consistent hits like Rainbow Six: Siege, Ghost Recon: Wildlands and the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Even the oddball crossover Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle for Nintendo Switch found success earlier this year. But Ubisoft’s steady run of success has not saved the company from talk of a possible hostile takeover by fellow French media corporation Vivendi.

The good news for Ubisoft: It does not seem like a takeover will happen in the immediate future. According to gamesindustry.biz, Vivendi said it will not attempt a takeover in the next six months. This is the latest development in an ongoing saga that has seen Vivendi inch closer and closer to owning 30 percent of Ubisoft shares, at which point it would be required to make a takeover bid under French law. Currently, Vivendi owns 27 percent of Ubisoft shares and was expected to go above 30 percent next week before today’s news.

Vivendi also stated it will not put any of its own people on Ubisoft’s board of directors, apparently an act of goodwill in response to Ubisoft’s clear opposition to such a takeover. Back in October, Ubisoft started buying back its own shares to stave off Vivendi’s attempt to control the company. Aside from its heavy Ubisoft investment, Vivendi acquired Gameloft in 2016. Gameloft’s CEO at the time was Michel Guillemot, brother of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.

Vivendi Games used to be a major player in the gaming industry, at one point owning Blizzard Entertainment (makers of Warcraft and Diablo) as well as popular franchises like Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot. In 2008, it merged with Call of Duty publisher Activision to form Activision Blizzard, which finally became fully independent from Vivendi in 2013. That completed the once-major publisher’s functional exit from the games business.

Although Vivendi is backing away from a possible Ubisoft takeover at the moment, such a development would put the media company firmly back into the discussion of major players in the gaming world. As gamesindustry.biz noted, Vivendi’s earnings report included some business-speak about wanting to go deeper into the games business due to the “unrealized capital gain” on its investment in Ubisoft.

A takeover of Ubisoft would give Vivendi control of Assassin’s Creed, the Tom Clancy line of games and the Rabbids franchise, among other favorites like Rayman. Released less than a month ago, Assassin’s Creed: Origins received positive reviews and has outsold its predecessor by a healthy margin. Additionally, Far Cry 5 and The Crew 2 are set to grab attention when both release during the normally lean months of February and March, respectively.

Ubisoft has had a strong run over the years, but the perception that it is still the third-biggest independent publisher behind Activision and EA has put it in Vivendi’s crosshairs in a way those other two companies have not had to face in recent years.