EA is ending its relationship with Ubisoft, but the French publisher believes that this is in its “best interests.”
Towards the end of 2004, EA bought a significant share in Ubisoft, enough to make it the second largest voting group after the Guillemot founders, who founded the company.
Since then, EA rose to become Ubisoft’s single largest shareholder. But it seems that this relationship will soon come to an end, following the news that EA has put its stake in Ubisoft – a total of 14 million shares – up for sale.
In a statement, Ubisoft said that although the relationship with EA had been good and the publisher had always been supportive of Ubisoft’s strategy, it felt that the sale was in its best interests.
Analyst Conner O’Shea from Kepler Capital Markets in Paris said that the sale opened the door for other companies to look at Ubisoft, and suggested that Activision Blizzard might be interested in acquiring the company now that EA was out of the picture.
Source: Edge and Business Week
