France VS EA
polycounter lvl 18
I thought this would've been posted already. Anyhoo...It is gaming news, so I thought it should be shared amongst all of the Polycounters. And Happy New Year everyone.
From IGN
[ QUOTE ]
France versus EA
The French Government is about to challenge everything.
By Jeremy Dunham
January 3, 2005 - According to a report from Yahoo! UK Finance, Ubisoft Entertainment could soon be receiving support from the French government in its bid to combat a takeover from US videogame monolith, Electronic Arts.
Yahoo's article was inspired by a piece that French newspaper La Tribune ran over the Holiday Break. Though the sources for the Tribune item were never disclosed, it claimed that the French government has been watchful of gaming studios based in its country for months. Particularly in terms of how likely they are for a takeover. Ubisoft owns almost 20 of these studios and the heads for most of them are said to be very weary of a potential EA buyout. The reason? An EA takeover would supposedly mark the end of French-based decisions in the videogame industry.
Ubisoft officials have gone on record by saying that it has not had talks with EA "at present" about its 19.9 percent purchase of its capital. Furthermore, it was said, "In light of recent news spread by the press, Ubisoft's board of directors reiterates that, in the absence of information from Electronic Arts regarding its intentions, the latter's acquisition of the group's capital is unsolicited and currently considered hostile. Moreover, there are no negotiations between the two parties at present."
Newspaper Les Echos reported on December 29 that Ubisoft would gather some of its largest shareholders later this week in an effort to convince them not to give support to Electronic Arts. Furthermore, Ubisoft is considering various options to defend itself should the need arise. Increasing the holding of the Guillemot family, for instance, is among one of its chief tactics. As the Guillemot's have 17.5% of the shares and 26.6% of the voting rights.
[/ QUOTE ]
From IGN
[ QUOTE ]
France versus EA
The French Government is about to challenge everything.
By Jeremy Dunham
January 3, 2005 - According to a report from Yahoo! UK Finance, Ubisoft Entertainment could soon be receiving support from the French government in its bid to combat a takeover from US videogame monolith, Electronic Arts.
Yahoo's article was inspired by a piece that French newspaper La Tribune ran over the Holiday Break. Though the sources for the Tribune item were never disclosed, it claimed that the French government has been watchful of gaming studios based in its country for months. Particularly in terms of how likely they are for a takeover. Ubisoft owns almost 20 of these studios and the heads for most of them are said to be very weary of a potential EA buyout. The reason? An EA takeover would supposedly mark the end of French-based decisions in the videogame industry.
Ubisoft officials have gone on record by saying that it has not had talks with EA "at present" about its 19.9 percent purchase of its capital. Furthermore, it was said, "In light of recent news spread by the press, Ubisoft's board of directors reiterates that, in the absence of information from Electronic Arts regarding its intentions, the latter's acquisition of the group's capital is unsolicited and currently considered hostile. Moreover, there are no negotiations between the two parties at present."
Newspaper Les Echos reported on December 29 that Ubisoft would gather some of its largest shareholders later this week in an effort to convince them not to give support to Electronic Arts. Furthermore, Ubisoft is considering various options to defend itself should the need arise. Increasing the holding of the Guillemot family, for instance, is among one of its chief tactics. As the Guillemot's have 17.5% of the shares and 26.6% of the voting rights.
[/ QUOTE ]
Replies
And the French government are often found supporting the arts and entertainment industries in their country, for promoting culture and stuff. It's a good idea!
MoP
I totally understand Ea buying into Ubisoft (essentially prepairing to cripple them, prevent takeover or decrease the prospect of further investment in the company to enable them to further monapalyse the games industry) but I am hopeful that this will not be the case and that Ubi successfully combat the move.
It is sad that the british government has not taken more of an interest in the gaming industry as there are no strong british based publisher left.
Where was the US government with its support for our industry when THOSE two were purchasing up US & canadian developers?
I am all for having gov money in education, pulic health & transportation and other basic needs, but nothing good will come out of the government supporting gaming companys.
Exspecially when the money doesn't go to the small developers who need the money badly, but to one of the biggest (almost as evil as EA
The US govenment should better restict EA to prevent another innovation killing monopoly like Microsoft.
Ubisoft chose themselves to sell parts of their company in the form of shares and to make themselves a public company.
In return for doing this the company will gain a lot of capital and management received a nice chunk too.
The flipside of doing this is that you hand over a large part of the control over the future away to the shareholders. Management will always try to stay one of the largest shareholders but for the rest it's out of their hands.
Any company who does good business and why has strong and powerfull competitors know that there will be attempts to buy you. And if you're a pulic company you partly won't be even able to control it.
So in a way Ubisoft can only blame themselves for this. The chose to cash in on their business success by going public.
-R
I think it's nice that the French government is thinking of trying to keep a foothold in the game industry, and supporting Ubisoft in some minor way (such as permitting an expidited merger with Vivendi) won't somehow corrupt the game companies, although corporations are pretty much inherently corrupt by nature.