About a month ago, it was reported that Tencent was looking to own a big chunk of Ubisoft. Now we know that its investment is more of a roundabout move to raise its stake in the company. Tencent isn’t taking over Ubisoft, but it is increasing its number of shares.
Axios’ Stephen Totilo reported the news on Twitter. “[Tencent] is investing heavily in [Ubisoft,]” he writes, “announcing a new €300 million investment in Guillemot Bros, the company run by Ubisoft’s co-founders.” This investment allows the Guillemot family to maintain control of Ubisoft, something it’s been looking to maintain since May 2022. Tencent’s investment in the group is a 49.9% stake, which does not give it control.
As Totilo points out in the thread, Tencent also gets no board seats at either Guillemot Bros or Ubisoft — though its increased investment will still return a profit, of course. However, Tencent’s stake in Ubisoft will increase to nearly 10%, while the Guillemots’ can reach almost 30%. That makes for a sizable combined vote — though not large enough to veto or outright control the direction of Ubisoft.
As a result of the new investment, Tencent will be bringing some of Ubisoft’s franchises to the mobile and PC markets in China. That makes sense: the number one game company in the world is an ideal choice for Chinese localization. The likes of The Division Resurgence and the newly announced Assassin’s Creed Mirage are likely candidates. We ought to hear more about those two titles at Ubisoft Forward 2022.
This isn’t the only recent Tencent investment that made headlines. Sony and Tencent now own shares of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, as both made sizable investments in parent company Kadokawa Corporation. While the company still owns 70% of its shares (and thus keeps veto power and control), Sony has a 14% stake, and Tencent subsidiary Sixjoy has 16%.
