Ubisoft, France’s biggest video games maker, is still open to other partners after a deal in which China’s Tencent will raise its stake in the company, its co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said on Thursday.
Guillemot’s comments, made at a closed press event whose content the company asked not to be made public before a showcase event online on Saturday, came on the heels of a rough day for Ubisoft’s stock, which tumbled 17% after the group announced Tencent would become its single biggest shareholder with an overall stake of 11%.
The deal values the “Assassin’s Creed” maker at about $10 billion.
“We remain totally independent and we can act with any outside company if we want to,” said Guillemot, who along his four brothers founded Ubisoft in 1986. “That was a big negotiation with Tencent,” he added. “We can do whatever we want.”
Traders and analysts have said the Tencent deal, which sees the world’s largest games firm by revenue enter into a shareholder pact with the Guillemots, removed the speculative appeal of Ubisoft shares.
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