Chinese tech giant Tencent is increasing its minority stake in Ubisoft in a deal with the company’s founding family that values France’s biggest video game maker at more than €10 billion ($9.89 billion) amid a wave of buyouts in the industry, reports Reuters. The deal underscores the appetite of deep-pocketed Chinese gaming giants for foreign studios and comes just a week after the acquisition by NetEase of unlisted French video games maker Quantic Dream.
It also caps a difficult four-year period at Ubisoft, home to the “Assassin’s Creed” and “Tom Clancy’s” video game franchises, marked by a succession of delays of new video games and allegations of sexual harassment that led to a revamp of its top management. Ubisoft’s share price has fallen by more than half over the period, from about €100 to less than €44 on Tuesday.
The transaction makes Tencent part of a shareholder pact with Ubisoft’s founders, the Guillemots, and gives it a total stake in the video game maker of more than 11% through the acquisition of a stake in the family holding.
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