Last week, Ubisoft announced that it had reached an agreement with Tencent, which had been expected for several months due to the group's dangerous financial situation. This took the form of granting Tencent a 25% stake in a new entity bringing together Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, the three franchises considered the French giant's most lucrative, in exchange for an immediate cash inflow of €1.16 billion to pay off its debts. This decision, however, appears to have been made unilaterally by the company's executives, and one of its shareholders is now invoking the French courts to settle the dispute.
Internal mutiny at Ubisoft after its agreement with Tencent
The saga surrounding Ubisoft's financial situation is filled with a new episode. As a reminder, the French giant has been in a delicate position for some time now. Management problems, internal harassment scandals, games stuck in development hell like Beyond Good & Evil 2 or a Skull & Bones released in a sad state, financial failures like Star Wars Outlaws, countless project cancellations, the list of its setbacks is long. Assassin's Creed Shadows, despite its successful launch despite the numerous controversies surrounding it before its release, was not enough to right the ship.
Ubisoft therefore had to approach Tencent to get its head above water and breathe a little easier with a welcome injection of funds aimed at clearing its colossal debts. But this agreement negotiated by the Guillemot brothers is clearly not to everyone's taste. AJ Investments, a minority shareholder of the group, which had repeatedly shown its dissatisfaction with Ubisoft's management, even going so far as to call on employees to demonstrate, issued an open letter to express its opposition to this alliance.
AJ Investments' demands against the group
"In response to Ubisoft's decision to transfer the intellectual property rights of three major franchises to a new entity, AJ Investments and a coalition of shareholders are launching legal proceedings in France. We are asking the court to encourage the group to organize an Extraordinary General Meeting, to give all shareholders the right to vote on two key resolutions:
- Renegotiate the agreement with Tencent: This transaction must be restructured in the form of a direct sale of assets to Tencent for no less than 4 billion euros, which represents the value accepted by the two groups.
- Distribute an Extraordinary Dividend: following With the sale, Ubisoft must return €23 per share to shareholders (for a total of €3 billion), while preserving €1 billion to cover remaining corporate debt.
We also want Tencent to be excluded from the vote, and for the Guillemot brothers' rights not to be limited to their shares not linked to Tencent. ".
For the time being, it is unclear whether the French courts will accept AJ Investments' request or not. It should also be noted that, following the announcement of this agreement with Tencent, Ubisoft's stock fell by more than 20%. The soap opera around the setbacks of the French giant is therefore thickening. The future will tell us what happens to the group and its numerous licenses.
Source: Insider Gaming
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