 Hey everyone, welcome back to Nintendo Prime and, you know, we have seen a lot of movement in the video game industry over the last year. A lot of various acquisitions and purchases. I mean, to be honest, it's been going on for a number of years. Even Nintendo technically got involved by buying up next-level games, although next-level games was already only making games for Nintendo for quite some time. So whatever, but we know that, you know, Sony and Microsoft have made their acquisitions. Activision actually acquired Blizzard itself like ages ago at this point. EA has purchased up a number of studios as well. And at this point, acquisitions in the video game industry are not new. But major acquisitions have become a bit newer. As an example, Microsoft attempting to buy out Activision Blizzard. That's just a very interesting thing to think about. You know, it still hasn't technically gone through all the legal legalese it needs. There's a minority of senators that seem to be maybe opposed to it. But for the most part, it looks like a majority don't mind. And this purchase is likely to be approved and go through next year in 2023. And that's cool for Microsoft. And maybe it helps save the reputation of Activision Blizzard. I don't know. There's so much reform needed to be done over there. I guess time will tell if they can get their crap together. But what's interesting, of course, is obviously with Sony buying up some studios as well, not necessarily on the Activision Blizzard level, but still, you know, significant in some ways, such as the former Halo developer in Bungie. It's interesting to find out that another major corporation potentially may be up for sale. And it's really going to come down to whether or not a couple major shareholders are ready to move on. And this would include the possible, well, the current CEO of the company. And we're talking about Ubisoft. And obviously that can impact Nintendo here because, hey, we do get a bevy of Ubisoft games. We don't get all of them, plus they make Mario Plus Rabbids, including the upcoming Sparks of Hope. So let's take a look at this, because this news comes from Bloomberg. Now, this isn't the typical Bloomberg site. This is just where you can fund tip. This BNN Bloomberg site is where you can actually read all Bloomberg articles without paying for them, you know, that is what it is. But it says Assassin's Creed publisher Ubisoft draws buyout interest. So Ubisoft Entertainment Essay, the video game publisher behind Assassin's Creed franchise is attracting preliminary takeover interests from buyout funds. People with knowledge of the matter, say several private equity firms, including Blackstone, Inc. and KKR and company have been studying the French business according to the people, the people, whoever the people are, who asked not to be identified because the information is private, which, you know, when you're talking about acquisitions and stuff, a lot of that stuff is going to be private. Surprised we're really hearing about it at all. Ubisoft hasn't entered into any serious negotiations with potential acquirers, and it's unclear whether the major shareholder is willing to pursue a deal, the people said. So what you can read from this so far is there is interest in companies and, you know, buying out Ubisoft, but we're not quite sure if Ubisoft major shareholders are willing to do it. Now they did fight off a take, an attempted hostile takeover by Vivendi quite some time ago. But that doesn't mean that they might not be willing to move on now. After all, Ubisoft has its own controversy over the years, not quite as controversial as Activision Blizzard, but around the same sort of issues happening at their company. The family of Ubisoft Chairman, Ys Givant, is the company's biggest investor with a 15 percent state. Data Compile about Blueberg Show shares of Ubisoft have fallen 41 percent in Paris trading over the past year, giving it a market value of 4.8 billion euros or 5.2 billion dollars. Deliberations are at an early stage. There's no certainty any of the suitors will proceed with offers, the people said. Representatives for Blackstone and KKR declined to comment. Ubisoft said in an email statement, it's built a strong portfolio and is ideally positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities and rapid growth in the industry. The company declined to comment on any takeover interest. Ubisoft has found it in 1986 by five brothers from the Givant family. The company's shares have been battered over the past year and make concerns over delayed launches and lower productivity levels compared to peers. French media giant Vivendi Essie agreed to 2018 to sell its stake in Ubisoft after its typical strategy of seeking creeping control failed to pan out. And this is what we're talking about while there was an attempt at a hostile takeover, but it was defeated, it took a while. It got scary for Ubisoft there for a moment because Vivendi wasn't looking to do good things with the company. The exit was a victory for Ubisoft's leader, Givant, who sought to ward off a takeover attempt of Vivendi's billionaire backer, Vincent Ballor. Again, this comes from Bloomberg, written by Ruth David, Dinesh Nair and Giles Turner. Now, this is quite interesting to think about. The industry that we're seeing right now, where all of the major parties seem to be going up for sale. And to be clear, this does not mean that Ubisoft is going to be bought out. It's going to take the agreement of not only, you know, the Isgima family, but it's also going to take the approval of several other prominent stakeholders. You know, he might have the largest stake, but if you can get, you know, another 25 to 30 percent, you know, of total stakeholders to agree with Isgima to not sell out, there is a possibility here that this is a big nothing burger. However, it is interesting that companies are actually inquiring about potential interest in buying out Ubisoft. Because, yeah, Ubisoft is in a downturn, but typically that means they're actually overdue for a giant upswing because Ubisoft is a massively successful video game maker. And while they might be downturning due to game delays and all that, all these games are eventually going to come out and they're going to come out roughly in a very short time period of probably a couple of years. And the stock is going to start soaring as those games perform and do numbers. I we know about a number of games like Beyond Good and Evil 2. My gosh, is that game ever going to come out? But, you know, Sparks of Hope is going to do probably really, really well for them coming out this year. And, you know, the Assassin's Creed games knew a whole bunch of other games they have coming as well are likely going to perform very well, especially as the next generation is really kicking off. Shall we say the current generation at this point and the PS5 and the Xbox Series get into more homes? I honestly think if you wait five years, their stocks are going to bounce back because it just they're a triple A video game developer and yeah, it takes a while to make quality triple A games. Now, they are looking to get into NFTs and games as a service. In fact, I think some game leaked quite recently, maybe even today, or maybe they announced that I don't remember something that's supposed to be like a Fortnite competitor or something. I have no idea. Maybe it works out for him. Maybe it doesn't. I mean, Fortnite could probably use, I guess, some more competition. I know we've got a billion Battle Royale games out there, but few of them have been able to get to the level of like Call of Duty Warzone, you know, Fortnite, you know, to the upper echelons of that Battle Royale. There isn't actually that many of them out there. So I guess if they want to attempt to get up into that realm, good luck. It's a very hard to crack realm and most Battle Royales end up failing and getting shut down. So we'll see what happens if they do go that route. But the bottom line is obviously Ubisoft is in a position where people are wondering what the future of the company is going to be. And obviously they had their own controversy that they seem to have sort of smoothed over a lot of employees involved in some of the harassment suits and harassment accusations have actually left the company, whether it was their own accord or being let go. There's been management shifting around and all that. And for the most part, the CEO himself has avoided accusations himself. But at some point, you know, when you have all these things happening below you, I know there's layers before it gets to the tippity top and HR is probably primarily to blame more than anything else for not letting it get to the top bottom line is, you know, at some point, you got to take responsibility for everything that's happening at your company. And they seem to be surviving it. But again, lots of game delays, lots of employee turnover. And now they're kind of in this precarious position where they're at a low and companies sometimes panic at a low. And if they panic and enough shareholders just want to get out right now, potentially they could be taken over and bought out. However, again, Yves Guillemot has an indicator at all that he has any interest in that. In fact, if you think back to 2018 when he fought off the Vendi, he clearly does not want the company leaving his family. Obviously, he probably plans to set it up for future kids and cousins and everything to take over after him. And yeah, you know, I don't know if the other major shareholders feel the same or not. They felt the same back in 2018, but do they still feel the same today? Watching the value of their shares just tank. And do they think that value is going to keep sinking? Or do they think that, hey, there's a solid plan at Ubisoft for the shares to bounce back? And I would argue this is just typical video game crap. I mean, Nintendo shares bottomed out what with the Wii U and the beginning of the Wii U and 3DS era. And then guess what? Here we are. And the shares are, you know, starting to creep back up to all time highs. Hey, guess what? Companies ebb and flow. We don't need to do wholesale shares and just completely sell out to an investment group or something just because the company is in a low. Sometimes it's better to just sit there through the low and ride it until it comes up high again. In fact, now might be a good time to actually invest in Ubisoft and buy more shares because I fully believe that you want to buy shares when the company is low, when there's a history of that company bouncing back, which there is with Ubisoft and obviously Ubisoft has a massive stable, a very good selling IP and they, you know, now that they're not releasing yearly Assassin's Creed, yeah, their numbers are going to take a hit when you go away from the thing that's been helping carry you every year. Hello, yearly Assassin's Creed games. Yeah, the revenue is going to take a short term hit. But it should bounce back when the next big one comes out and ends up being bigger and better than ever before because they spent more time developing it. So again, this is just the reshuffling how the business works. And obviously, we just had the pandemic, which really messed with things. I think anyone thinking about selling their shares right now is just panicking. And we all know investors do panic because investors don't like to lose money. But I think the smart play here is to not sell. But you know what? I also haven't invested stake in this not because I'm a shareholder myself, but because I obviously would hate to see an investment group take over where all they care about is liquidating the company versus, say, you know, leaving it in at least the control of the game on family that seems to at least care about making video games. A lot of these investment groups care about liquidation. They don't care about anything other than that. And it is interesting to see that they're worth about five point two billion right now because that's within the price range of Nintendo. Nintendo could buy Ubisoft. It's not going to happen, by the way. Nintendo is not going to buy what Ubisoft, but it's just kind of interesting to think that, yeah, you know, Ubisoft really is not worth as much as you might think, right? When you think about how much Activision Blizzard was worth, how much EA is worth and then how much Ubisoft is worth. They're kind of sort of a small fish and a big pond that somehow makes big games that compete with the big fish in that pond. It's kind of interesting, truly seeing how how big they are as a company, just in terms of their evaluation. Anyway, so I'm with the interoperability from Nintendo Prime. Let me know if you're worried about Ubisoft being sold out. Maybe you think this would be a positive thing. I don't know. I'm kind of a mind that despite the issues that Ubisoft, I'm not sure investment groups buying them out is the best way to do it. Again, a lot of times that leads to liquidation, which means selling off of IP and tear down on the company. And I just don't know that I really want that to happen to Ubisoft because I'm not sure that other people would handle their IPs better than them. I know some people get sick of the formulaic ways of some things. But hey, these IPs became popular because of these formulas and because the way Ubisoft makes them as an example. I don't think anyone but the team behind Sparks of Hope can do Sparks of Hope. And I would hate to see that team get broken up. So I have a little bit of a personal investment here because I really, really enjoyed the Mario Fliss Ravids franchise. And I do like Assassin's Creed. If I'm completely honest, I really enjoyed Valhalla. So I hope that they they decide not to do it again. Could be a big nothing burger, but I wanted to bring it to your attention because we live in this world of bio it's happening all over the industry. And I really, really hope that this isn't the next one to go down. All right, folks, I'm Nathan and Rebel Jants from Nintendo Prime. 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