Vivendi raises stakes in French video games companies

Reuters
A logo is seen over the main entrance of the entertainment-to-telecoms conglomerate Vivendi's headquarters in Paris April 8, 2015. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

PARIS (Reuters) - Vivendi raised its stakes in French video games makers Ubisoft and Gameloft and indicated that it may buy additional shares later and seek board seats. Vivendi sold off its video games business Activision Blizzard in 2013 in the opening salvo of an asset sale spree and some analysts have questioned the wisdom of re-entering the games market now. "These investments are part of a strategic vision of operational convergence between Vivendi's content and platforms on one hand and the Ubisoft and Gameloft productions in video games on the other," Vivendi said in a statement on Thursday. Vivendi said its stakes now stood at 10.39 percent in Ubisoft and 10.20 percent in Gameloft, taking the total amount spent on the shares to 278 million euros ($315 million). The group first disclosed the positions it had taken last week, saying it had spent 160 million euros to buy 6.6 percent of Ubisoft and 6.2 percent of Gameloft. That prompted both Ubisoft and Gameloft to say separately that they wanted to remain independent. The Vivendi stake-building sent both shares up sharply as analysts speculated that Vivendi could seek to take over or merge the two groups. Shares in Ubisoft rose 2.6 percent to 25.99 euros at 3.05 a.m. ET. Gameloft rose 4.5 percent to 4.56 euro to while Vivendi fell 1 percent to 21.40 euros. Led by French tycoon Vincent Bollore, chairman and the largest shareholder, Vivendi has largely exited the telecoms business by selling off its largest unit French mobile group SFR as well as operators in Morocco and Brazil so as to focus on media and entertainment. Disposals have given Vivendi a war chest of about 10 billion euros with which to make acquisitions so as to further Bollore's stated aim of building a European media powerhouse to compete with the likes of pay-TV group Sky PLC to Germany's radio and publishing group Bertelsmann. Vivendi now owns the largest record label Universal Music Group and French pay-TV operator Canal Plus, as well as a 19.9 percent stake in Telecom Italia and about 1 percent of Spain's Telefonica. ($1 = 0.8818 euros) (Reporting by Leila Abboud; Editing by Keith Weir)