EA Selling its Share of Ubisoft

[Logan Westbrook]

EA Selling its Share of Ubisoft

EA is ending its relationship with Ubisoft, but the French publisher believes that this is in its "best interests."

Towards the end of 2004, EA bought a significant share in Ubisoft, enough to make it the second largest voting group after the Guillemot founders, who founded the company.

Since then, EA rose to become Ubisoft's single largest shareholder. But it seems that this relationship will soon come to an end, following the news that EA has put its stake in Ubisoft - a total of 14 million shares - up for sale.

In a statement, Ubisoft said that although the relationship with EA had been good and the publisher had always been supportive of Ubisoft's strategy, it felt that the sale was in its best interests.

Analyst Conner O'Shea from Kepler Capital Markets in Paris said that the sale opened the door for other companies to look at Ubisoft, and suggested that Activision Blizzard might be interested in acquiring the company now that EA was out of the picture.

Source: Edge [http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ea-selling-15-ubisoft-stake] and Business Week [http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-16/electronic-arts-sells-15-stake-in-france-s-ubisoft.html]


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[BlackStar42]

NO! Kotick must not be allowed to fuck up Assassin's Creed more than it already is! Can you imagine: Assassin's Creed 27- Desmond revisits Italy! But this time- it's SHINIER! WITH GUITARS! AND SUBSCRIPTION FEES!

 

[Krakyn]

No, god no! Anything but Activision! ANYTHING!

 

[addeB]

Oh shit, Activision+Ubisoft=infinite evil!

 

[Pielikey]

Modern Warfare 3 with Ubishit's DRM, oh this will be like watching a train crash

 

[Korey Von Doom]

Thank goodness, other than Assassin's Creed Ubisoft has screwed up there games, I don't hold high hopes for 3.

 

[Rarhnor]

I'm a little worried. Ubisoft has a couple good gametitles under its name. EA didn't take (much) hold regarding their marketing strategy and investments, but I can't help think that Activision will alter some of the series', Ubisoft has got going for it. Maybe, they'll dispatch 505-Games, so I can be happy again.

 

[Irridium]

I think I know how this happened.

EA: "Ubisoft, you gotta get rid of this "always online" DRM stuff. Its not working."
Ubisoft: "Nonesense! Its working perfectly! For all titles!"
EA: "No, its not. Silent Hunter 5 was cracked on release, and it took about a month for Assassin's Creed to get cracked. Not to mention basically all of Australia was locked out of Settlers."
Ubisoft: "Oh please, those were just rumors. And that issue with Settlers is over, not to happen again."
EA: "Look, you can't put such restrictive DRM on your customers, it won't work. We tried that and failed spectacularly with Spore."
Ubisoft: "You just didn't restrict them harder!"
EA: "Look, simple, not obtrusive DRM is the way to go, look at Bioware's games and Bad Company 2, those sold well on the PC."
Ubisoft: "You have no solid data that its due to DRM."
EA: "And you have no solid data that your DRM solution works. In fact, its quite the opposite."
Ubisoft: "Your fat."
EA: "I think we're done here."

At least thats how I like to imagine it happening.

 

[Weaver]

Well, we may as put all our evil into one big pot then.

 

[alittlepepper]

Wow. I'm not really sure what to say here, but it's kinda indicative when one of the biggest company and developer gobbling monsters of yesteryear decides to boot one of the few studios that was still actually making them some degree of money.

Maybe someone over at EA has realized that with the latest streams of nonsense coming out of Ubi these days it's best to sever ties.
I remember when I used to like Ubisoft, back in the days of the original Creed and Rainbow Six and Prince of Persia. (I think anyway. I believe Sands of Time was done by them.) Whatever the hell came over them really needs to go away so they can stop being idiots and get back to making good games again.

 

[Kollega]

Well, what can i say? Even Evil Has Standards. Not all types of evil, obviously.

Activision-Evil
Ubisoft-Evil
Evil+Evil=FUCK

I wonder if they're gonna reach some sort of critical mass and implode on themselves creating a tachyonic intradimensional singularity of pure malice that will rip apart the space-time continuum, causing all life as we know it to stop instantaneously and every molecule in our bodies to explode at the speed of light.

Or as a more realistic scenario, maybe Activision won't have that much control over Ubisoft, even despite owning this stock.

 

[Anah'ya]

I was already worried about the next Splinter Cell. Now I'm practically terrified.

 

[UnravThreads]

I don't care who buys that bit of UbiSoft, I just want another Might & Magic game!

 

[Blue Musician]

Activision-Evil
Ubisoft-Evil
Evil+Evil=FUCK

Sorry, but I can't see anyone on the Activision board objecting to Ubisoft's insane DRM anytime soon. I think we might be in trouble here.

This is exactly what I was thinking about.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Wait, companies buy shares in other companies? Meaning they can go to board meetings and vote all the wrong things? My god...

Either way, once Kotick grabs them he will gain power unimaginable. More power than he all ready has.

Calumon: When he smiles, I cry. :'(

 

[CK76]

Am I still getting Beyond Good and Evil 2?