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French media company Vivendi has increased its share capital in games company Ubisoft to 24 per cent.
The company has been slowly increasing its holdings in Ubisoft over the last year, going from the 10 per cent of the company they owned 12 months ago to the 24 they have now. Vivendi say they now hold 21.29 per cent of the voting rights to the company.
The Guillemot brothers have been fighting a predicted hostile takeover from Vivendi tooth and nail, although Vivendi insist that a bid for the company is not currently part of their plans and didn’t make any overt actions at Ubisoft’s recent shareholders meeting as several people had been predicted, although Ubisoft did accuse Vivendi of "systematic abstention" which led to several resolutions on the agenda being rejected.
The Guillemot brothers have increased their own stake considerably to try and stave off Vivendi’s efforts in the meantime and perhaps in this case some paranoia about Vivendi’s motives is justified: the brothers were convinced to sell their stake in Gameloft to the media giant in June of this year, saying that it was "against the best interests of the company"
