Ubisoft is reportedly up for sale.
The French video game company - which was founded in 1986 and is behind titles such as 'Sniper Elite', 'Battle Chess' and a handful of games from the 'Final Fantasy' series - is said to have attracted the attention of several private equity firms but the company are yet to enter any "serious negotiations".
A source told Bloomberg: "Several private equity firms including Blackstone Inc. and KKR Co. have been studying the French business and have a preliminary takeover interest in Ubisoft. Ubisoft hasn't entered into any serious negotiations with potential acquirers, and it's unclear whether its major shareholder is willing to pursue a deal."
Following the initial report, a different source went on to claim that Ubisoft will "eventually" take up any offers reportedly made so far, due to "ongoing struggles."
The insider told Kotaku: "The company will eventually sell to someone amid a flagging stock price and ongoing production struggles."
However, the news comes just months after Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot claimed that the company is able to "remain independent" because of their "talent" and the scale of the industry.
Back in February 2022, he said: "We are always making our decisions in the interest of our stakeholders, which are our employees, players, and shareholder. Ubisoft can remain independent. We have the talent, the industry scale, and a large portfolio of popular IP as you saw in the press release. Our IPs are sought after by the biggest global players in entertainment and tech. Adding to that, if there were an offer to buy us, the board of directors would of course review it in the interest of all stakeholders."
