Ubisoft appoints advisors to explore options after buyout report

French video game publisher Ubisoft said on Thursday that it had appointed advisers to review and pursue strategic options after a report last year suggested that most of its backers were considering a buyout.

Ubisoft said in a strategic update that “key advisors” have been hired to explore “strategic and capital transformation options to extract the best value for stakeholders.”

“This process will be overseen by independent members of the Board of Directors. Ubisoft will inform the market in accordance with applicable regulations if and once a transaction materializes,” the company said in a statement late Thursday.

In October, Bloomberg News reported that the Guillemot family that founded Ubisoft almost four decades ago, and the Chinese tech giant. Tencent they considered a potential acquisition of the company. Ubisoft’s shares rose more than 30% on the report at the time.

“We are convinced that there are many potential ways to generate value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises,” Yves Guillemot, co-founder and CEO, said Thursday, addressing the company’s strategic plan.

The Bloomberg report followed Ubisoft’s decision to delay the release of the latest title in its popular “Assassin’s Creed” video game series, “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” by three months, to February 2025.

On Thursday, Ubisoft postponed the launch of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” again, pushing it back to March 20.

Ubisoft’s shares have fallen 45% over the past 12 months amid woes surrounding its pipeline of blockbuster title launches, as well as doubts about the strategic direction of the company.

Last year, activist investor AJ Investments asked Ubisoft to sell itself to private equity or Tencent. At the time, the investment firm said it had won the support of 10% of Ubisoft’s shareholder base for its campaign.

The game maker had also drawn criticism for plans to include a paid “Season Pass” for its new Assassin’s Creed game, which would have provided gamers with access to a bonus quest and additional downloadable content at launch.

After gamers slammed the decision as adopting a “pay-to-play” model, Ubisoft decided to scrap plans for the paid feature.

Ubisoft is under pressure to prove it can turn things around. On Thursday, the company redoubled its commitment to cut costs, saying it now expects to achieve more than 200 million euros ($206 million) of cost reductions from 2025 to 2026 for the full year compared to 2022 to 2023 on an annualized basis.