Vivendi Succeeds in Gameloft Takeover

PARIS—The Guillemot family said Tuesday it would sell the bulk of its shares in videogame developer Gameloft SE to Vivendi SA, pushing the French media company a step closer to rebuilding its videogame franchise.

Vivendi controls about 56% of Gameloft's voting rights, the French stock market regulator said last week. The French media company said it would appoint a majority of Gameloft's board of directors on June 29 to reflect the results of its tender offer.

"The family maintains that Vivendi's hostile approach goes against the best interest of Gameloft, both for its activity and for its teams," the Guillemot family said in a statement, adding that it had decided "with regret" to sell most of its shares to Vivendi. The Guillemot family held 21.7% of Gameloft's capital on April 4.

Vivendi said last week that Gameloft would benefit from its industrial and financial backing to grow. It reopened its bid for Gameloft until June 15 on the same terms to the €8 ($9) per share offer it made last month, valuing the company at around €700 million.

Since late last year, Vivendi has been buying shares in Gameloft, a company with success in creating games for mobile phones. A resolution in the battle for Gameloft sets the stage for a greater fight over Ubisoft Entertainment SA, also run by the Guillemots, according to analysts. Vivendi owns 17.7% of Ubisoft and is seeking board representation, but said in a stock market filing on April 29 that it has no plans to seek control of Ubisoft or submit a public offer for its shares for the next six months.

Ubisoft, which is known for franchises such as "Assassin's Creed," has a market capitalization of €3.7 billion, several times that of Gameloft's. It has so far been hostile to Vivendi's advances.

Write to Nick Kostov at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 07, 2016 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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