Ubisoft appoints advisors to explore options after purchase report

French video game publisher. Ubisoft said Thursday that it is appointing advisers to review and pursue strategic options after a report last year suggested that its majority supporters were considering a purchase.

Ubisoft said in a strategic update that “leading advisors” had been hired to explore “capitalist and strategic transformation options to extract the best value for stakeholders.”

“This process will be overseen by independent members of the Board of Directors. Ubisoft will inform the market in accordance with applicable regulations once a transaction materializes,” the company said in a statement late Thursday.

In October, Bloomberg News reported that the Guillemot family, which founded Ubisoft nearly four decades ago, and the Chinese tech giant Tencent were considering a possible acquisition of the company. Ubisoft shares soared more than 30% according to the report at the time.

“We are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises,” Yves Guillemot, co-founder and CEO, said Thursday when addressing the firm’s strategic plan.

The Bloomberg report followed Ubisoft’s decision to delay the release of the latest title in its popular “Assassins Creed” video game series, “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” by three months, until February 2025.

On Thursday, Ubisoft again postponed the release of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” pushing it back to March 20.

Ubisoft shares have fallen 45% over the past 12 months amid issues surrounding its pipeline of blockbuster title releases, as well as doubts about the strategic direction of the company.

Last year, activist investor AJ Investments called for Ubisoft to sell itself to private equity or Tencent. At the time, the investment firm said it had secured the support of 10% of Ubisoft’s shareholder base for its campaign.

The game’s creator also received criticism for its plans to include a paid “Season Pass” for its new Assassin’s Creed game, which would have given players access to an additional mission and additional downloadable content at launch.

After players criticized the decision for adopting a “pay-per-play” model, Ubisoft decided to shelve plans for the paid feature.

Ubisoft is under pressure to prove it can turn things around. On Thursday, the company doubled down on its commitment to cutting costs and said it now expects to achieve more than 200 million euros ($206 million) of cost reductions for the full year 2025 to 2026 compared to 2022 to 2023 on an annualized basis. .