May 30, 2005
Ubisoft fights back against EA hostile takeover
CEO Yves Guillemot projects doubled profits over 2 years. Urges shareholders to keep their stock.
"We are working hard to remain independent," Mr Guillemot told the BBC News website.
EA bought 20% of Ubisoft last December, and held talks in February.
EA's block of shares were purchased from Dutch media tycoon John de Mol, and his investment vehicle Talpa Beheer BV. At the time, Ubisoft CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot commented of EA's purchase: "I have stated on the record that I view this action on the part of EA as hostile", and further marked of future concerns: "When looking at the longer-term, our only concern is the risk that we may not be allowed to fully realize our vocation of being creators of high quality games."
With a market capitalization of $18 billion, sales of $2.9 billion, and cash in hand of $2.5 billion, Electronic Arts could easily afford to outright purchase Ubisoft, which enjoyed sales of $680.1m last year.Posted by brad at May 30, 2005 09:55 AM | TrackBack
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