Ubisoft co-founder and president Yves Guillemot has stated that the publisher is "still considering" its relationship with Electronic Arts, who has since 2004 owned 20% of the company's stock, a move that many felt would lead to a hostile takeover but has never materialized as such.In an interview with Gamasutra, Guillemot commented that "we're still considering" in response to EA still showing interest in buying the publisher. "The first option for us is to manage our own company and grow it. The second option is to work with the movie industry, and the third is to merge," he said. "We think the market is going to grow fast, and we can take a big share of that market, so we don't have to change the way things are done at the moment."
EA CCO Bing Gordon, in another Gamasutra interview conducted recently said that "I think everybody is for sale. I think in general, successful intellectual properties in all media are undervalued, especially in our media ... There's been a lot of acquisitions, but the thing about acquisitions is that the only time it works is if you've got an intellectual property that can succeed without the people, or if the people have a ten-year career path that they're interested in at EA."
Both Gordon and Guillemot's words indicate that any changes in business may not be in the cards for the near future. EA acquiring Ubisoft is one of the largest rumorangs in recorded history; it takes 42 men just to get it off the ground. (Har, har.) The speculation hasn't been helped by Guillemot, who has previously asserted that he would consider a takeover if the price was right.
