Despite the fact that Ubisoft said the investment from Vivendi was entirely unwarranted and unwanted when the French corporate giant purchased around six per cent of the long time publisher/developer, Vivendi has gone ahead and upped its stake in the firm even more. It's now increased its share of Ubisoft to an impressive 10 per cent, worth more than $200 million.
"Vivendi is acting alone, is not in concert with a third party and has not concluded a temporary sale agreement regarding the Ubisoft and Gameloft shares or voting rights," the company said in a statement.
"The Group reserves the right to increase its stake in these two companies depending on market conditions and the possibility, in due time, to be represented on their board."
Ubisoft however doesn't like the sound of this and has said that even if Vivendi starts trying to muscle in on the company's motives and strategies, it will aggressively defend its independence.
Vivendi classically had a controlling stake in Activision Blizzard until 2013, when the World of Warcraft maker announced it had purchased almost 430 million shares in itself from Vivendi for $4.3 billion, bringing the French corporation's stake down to just 11.8 percent - down from 63.
It will be interesting to see what Vivendi plans to do with its stake in Ubisoft, though it seems like a smart plan to have a part of the company locked up. Ubisoft, despite drawing a lot of ire from gamers is still one of the most successful publishing houses in the world, putting out multiple hit-AAA titles every year.
With the reviews of Assassin's Creed Syndicate being much more positive than Unity, that's likely to continue.
