Vivendi keeps on buying Ubisoft shares

Last week it was announced that Vivendi has increased its stake in Ubisoft to 25.15 percent. Vivendi keeps denying that it is planning to make a bid for Ubisoft. (Ubisoft Entertainment : Vivendi raises Ubisoft stake to 25.15 pct)

"Vivendi is not considering the launch of a public tender on Ubisoft nor acquiring the control of the company," Vivendi said in a statement.

If its not a take-over it, it must be an investment and maybe with some shareholder activism attached to it. 

Ubisoft does not look to expensive compared to peers, although some of its recent titles have only been gotten a luke-warm reception (such as Watch_Dogs 2 and Steep).

Betting on Vivendi gaming investments has turned out great before. It is worth remembering that Vivendi once owned 52% of Activision and sold its last shares in the company in early 2016 at a huge profit. (Bloomberg: Vivendi Sells Its Activision Stake, Netting $1.1 Billion)

 

 

Ubisoft issues statement on low sales of Watch Dogs 2

As seen on the Steam top sellers list Ubisoft's Watch Dogs 2 has not been a raving success as of yet on PC, and other numbers have also indicated slow sales. 

This prompted Ubisoft to issue a statement on the matter according to Eurogamer. 

Let's hope for better sales of Ubisoft's Steep which is now in Open Beta.

Ubisoft still looks cheap at P/S 2.3x given that they continue to move sales from retail to digital. 

Ubisoft financial H1 results

Some quick thoughts:

As with all distributors, digital sales was up. But for Ubisoft it was +102% YoY, now 72% of revenues. And revenues itself was +36%. In plain numbers, revenue increased with €74m. 

At the same time as revenues increased 36% costs (SG&A) only increases about 1%, showing the power of increased digital distribution (and was also partly due to an increase in back-catalog sales).

They are guiding for financial full year 2017, €1,610-1,670m in sales. 

The finished with this slide reminding us all why you must be invested in this sector: