Chapter 227： Acquire Ubisoft

At this time, Ubisoft's market value was less than $1 billion, and this kind of acquisition did not require William Chen to come out in person. However, he happened to come to France, and in his previous life, he also played a lot of games produced by Ubisoft, so he was still very interested in this company, so he stopped by the way, and it was all a tour.

Montreuil is located in the eastern suburbs of Paris, very close to the city, less than two kilometers away. The headquarters of Ubisoft is in an orange four-story building.

Ubisoft CEO Guillermo led William Chen and his party to visit Ubisoft and saw a lot of game posters and character figures they made. From these items, we can see the glory of this company, including their He has produced well-known games such as "Rayman", "Operation Rainbow", "Splinter Cell", "Prince of Persia" and "Assassin's Creed".

When Chen William was asked by the other party about his intention to buy Ubisoft's shares, Chen William had nothing to hide and said directly:

"I do have the idea of ​​acquiring Ubisoft. We, Meta Entertainment Media, want to cover all entertainment industries, so it is necessary to enter the game industry, which is a market that cannot be ignored. But now there are so many game companies, we need to choose , so when I encounter the right opportunity, I don’t mind giving the first opportunity to Ubisoft, after all, I have played your company’s games before, and I am very recognized for your production strength.”

"But sorry, Mr. William, you know, we at Ubisoft only want to develop independently and will not accept any mergers and acquisitions."

Hearing Guillermo say this, William Chen smiled and said:

"I understand your concerns, Mr. Guillermo, companies like Vivendi and EA do, after acquiring independent game companies, often end up destroying each other. This can be seen from many facts. You don't want to be acquired, and the loss of independence is also based on this consideration, isn't it?"

Seeing the expression of approval on Guillermo's face, he nodded, and William Chen knew what he knew, and he continued:

"But we are different. We, Meta Entertainment and Media, are a multi-disciplinary company, and in the game industry, there are currently no partners, so instead of seeing this as an acquisition, it's better to see it as a cooperation with us. Our There are Marvel Entertainment and MGM in the 20th Century. How huge are these game material libraries? Once they become part of our group, they will be able to obtain the authorization of these copyrights. For game companies, I am afraid that It's the most beautiful thing."

"And there are concerns about the independence of the company, you don't have to, if you can understand my previous investments and acquisitions, such as Netflix, such as Tesla, and your French Hermes, we will never interfere with them. The independent operation of the company will only provide the most important help as a partner, so I think you should not generalize, why not try to cooperate first?"

Of course, William Chen does not expect to be able to persuade Ubisoft, mainly the Guillermo family, with his remarks. Ubisoft was first founded by the five Guillermo brothers, and the current CEO is their descendants. At present, the Guillermo family only holds about 15% of the company's shares, but has more than 25% of the voting rights, which is higher than that of William Chen. Voting rights held by 20% of the shares in hand.

But now William Chen continues to increase his holdings of Ubisoft in the secondary market. It will be a matter of time before his voting power surpasses the Guillermo family, unless they immediately use means of resistance, such as the poison pill plan, or find the white knight. To help them master the shares, if it really reaches that stage, it will simply need a contest of funds, but instead, it will cause a lot of trouble with the other party, which is not what William Chen hopes.

Unexpectedly, Chen William will meet French government officials again. Just like when he acquired Hermes before, their main concern is whether Chen William will conduct a hostile takeover of Ubisoft. If so, they will consider protecting their country. 's enterprise.

It is not difficult to deal with them. In the current economic crisis, if such an acquirer has to set a threshold, it will only have a very negative impact on them attracting overseas investment.

Moreover, William Chen's performance after the acquisition of Hermès is enough to prove that he did not maliciously sell the local company after the acquisition. Instead, he has always respected the leadership of the local management for the company, so the other party did not express his concern for this. The resistance to the acquisition was too strong, and it is estimated that the main reason is to warn him that he cannot use too violent means at this time.

When the news of William Chen's intention to acquire Ubisoft began to circulate in the market, and people found that some people had bought a large amount of Ubisoft's shares in the secondary market, with the emergence of follow-up buying, Ubisoft's stock price also accumulated. rose more than 20%.

At this time, William Chen already held 29.9% of Ubisoft's shares. According to French law, if the shareholding ratio exceeds 30%, a public tender offer must be made, and a detailed rule will be provided. The stock in the company is sold to the company it wants to acquire.

Therefore, at this time, William Chen's acquisition of Ubisoft has reached a critical point. Now it depends on Ubisoft's attitude.

When Chen William informed Ubisoft about his shareholding, the company's CEO expressed his hope to meet with Chen William again. In this meeting, the other party did not act too tough, expressing the hope that if Chen William acquires Ubisoft, the independence of the company must be guaranteed, and the company cannot be split and sold at will.

For this point, William Chen naturally has no objection. He acquired Ubisoft, originally hoping to make a layout in the game industry, not like other game giants at all, just to eliminate the threat.

After this point is reached, William Chen said that even if Ubisoft is acquired by Meta Entertainment Media, it will continue to be led by the current management. Unless there is a major business error or a major problem with the business strategy, the parent company will not interfere with the education. BI's independence.

So the next day, Meta Entertainment and Media announced that it had held more than 30% of Ubisoft's shares, and now issued a tender offer to all shareholders. Meta Entertainment and Media will acquire all shareholders' shares at a premium of 30%.

After the release of the tender offer, some shareholders successively agreed to their takeover offer. In the end, Meta Entertainment Media acquired up to 76.5% of Ubisoft's shares. From beginning to end, it cost 850 million and became the controlling party of Ubisoft. Thus, it was announced that Ubisoft has officially become a subsidiary of Meta Entertainment and Media.

Through the acquisition of Ubisoft, Meta Entertainment Media officially entered the game industry, and also opened a door for the IP they master to exert influence among players through games and earn profits.

At present, there are still about 23.5% of Ubisoft's shares, of which about 15% of the Guillermo family's shares have not been sold and are still in their hands. In addition, there are sporadic shares in other investors who are optimistic about Ubisoft's future investment. In the hands of the author, these have no effect on the overall situation.

After the completion of the acquisition, Ubisoft held a general meeting of shareholders, and Chen William became the chairman of Ubisoft. There are 7 members on the board of directors. Meta Group will only send 4 people to the board of directors to maintain control over the board. The remaining three 2 of them are members of the Guillermo family and 1 is an investor representative.

As for the day-to-day management of Ubisoft, Guillermo is still the CEO, and no changes have been made. This is also because Chen William has kept his promise to maintain the independence of Ubisoft in operation. to interfere with the day-to-day management of the company.

At the same time, Ubisoft has also been authorized by Marvel Entertainment to start developing games based on the Marvel Universe. The first game is an adaptation of the game based on the upcoming "Iron Man" plot, and subsequent Marvel Universe movies will be Work with them to launch versions of the game for various platforms.

After all these are completed, William Chen will also end his trip to France this time, and the next destination is the United Kingdom.

After Camilo Hagen made contact with the Glazer family, the owner of Manchester United, Manchester United also learned about William Chen's interest in Manchester United. .

This kind of impact is caused by the fact that in the years since the acquisition of Manlian, the actions of the Glazer family are indeed very unpopular with fans, so they are eager to stand up and save Manchester United; in addition, there is also William Chen himself. The factors that fuel the flames here, after all, his current media group, after the acquisition of the "New York Times", has become even more powerful, and its control of public opinion has gone a step further.

These public opinions naturally added a lot of pressure to the Glazer family, which was in an economic crisis at this time and the situation was not very good.

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