Report: Ubisoft seeking investors to defend against Vivendi takeover

Ubisoft Entertainment is looking for Canadian investors to help prevent a takeover by media company Vivendi, The Globe and Mail reports. Quoting chief executive officer Yves Guillemot, they claim Ubisoft is meeting this week with parties in Montreal and Toronto to raise funding.

"We want to increase the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital," Mr. Guillemot said. "We feel it’s a good defence."

Earlier this week Vivendi confirmed to Deadline that they had launched a hostile takeover bid against developer and publisher Gameloft, whose CEO Michel Guillemot is both Yves' brother and co-founder of Ubisoft. European investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co. tells The Globe and Mail that the maneuver is part of a "larger ploy to force talks with the Guillemot family and take over Ubisoft" The Globe and Mail reports.

"At stake," the article says, "are more than 3,000 Ubisoft jobs in Montreal, Quebec, Toronto and Halifax and hundreds of millions in capital invested since the company opened its first studio in Canada in 1997. Quebec has the most to lose, with Ubisoft representing a pillar of its multimedia industry."

Polygon has reached out to Ubisoft for comment, and will have more information as this story evolves.