Electronic Art's voting rights increase in Ubisoft to 25% earlier this week rapidly become the source of a great deal of speculation. Depending on who you listen to, the increased investment may have signaled an intention to finally mount an acquisition bid. As the share purchase was originally described by Ubisoft as "hostile", any such bid would likely create a great deal of furore in France, a market known for their highly cherished independence from foreign corporations.

However, it appears that the reason for increase in voting power may be far more innocuous. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the increase in voting rights may actually be due to a slightly obscure French stock market law which automatically doubles the voting rights associated with certain share types after they've been held for a certain amount of time.

Electronic Arts has on the whole been a fairly quiet shareholder in Ubisoft since the original share acquisition, rarely, if ever, exercising their powers to affect Ubisoft strategy. GamesIndustry.biz also suggests that any real takeover bid would be fraught with risk, largely due to the complexities of trying to integrate such large, unwieldy, and highly likely culturally different organisations. Simply put, GamesIndustry.biz argues that it just doesn't make any sense.

Submitted by kolpol9 14/08/2007 73 5

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http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=8547

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