(Bloomberg) — Ubisoft Entertainment SA 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).
Most Read from Bloomberg
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.
Ubisoft, which was founded by France’s Guillemot family, has been struggling to recover from a post-pandemic slump in the industry, with a string of disappointing launches weighing further on its performance. In January, the company hired advisers to review strategic options after last year’s launch of Star Wars Outlaws performed below expectations 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 valuation of the new unit surpasses Ubisoft’s current enterprise value and is the result of a competitive process, Duguet said.
Ubisoft’s US-listed depositary receipts jumped as much as 20% on the news.
“This is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious,” said Ubisoft Chief Executive Officer Yves Guillemot. 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.
(Adds details on the share move and closing date.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
发表回复