Ubisoft Fights Vivendi’s Takeover by Adding Independent Board Members

A French conglomerate known as Vivendi has been acquiring a massive amount of Ubisoft’s shares over the past couple of years, all with the intention of completely taking over the French publisher. Ubisoft is not going down without a fight though, as they have recently been taking actions to stave off the possible acquisition.

Recently, the gaming publishing company appointed two new independent directors who have no financial stake in the company. Ubisoft has been exercising this tactic as a way of keeping Vivendi from completely buying out board members to gain control of the company.

Just this year Ubisoft has brought on Corinne Fernandez-Handelsman and Virginie Haas, meaning that their board will soon be predominantly made up of independent board members. Fernandez-Handelsman is a marketing and account management expert of over 30 years, while Haas has spent most of her career at IBM in senior operations and sales roles revolving around cloud computing. 

According to their press releases though, the reason behind the newly appointed members is simply a way to help the company gain more experience in technological areas of gaming, including cloud computing and handling of big data, as well as recruitment.

“We are delighted to continue the expansion of our Board of Directors with the nominations of Corinne and Virginie as independent directors,” said Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot.”This development reflects our desire to comply with the best corporate governance practices for the benefit of all our shareholders, while also combining the necessary expertise and competencies for Ubisoft’s long-term success.”

It should be interesting to see just what will happen regarding the two companies, especially considering the amount of AAA mainstream titles that Ubisoft holds under its belt. For more information, be sure to check back to the site for updates, as well as all of your other Nerdy News and Needs!