Ubisoft shareholders approved by a majority vote the decision of CEO Yves Guillemot to appoint two independent directors to the company’s management board.
The new members of the Ubisoft Board of Directors are Corinne Fernandez-Handelsman and Virginia Haas. The remaining 9 managers were re-elected in their positions.
Thus, 6 out of 11 members of the Ubisoft board of directors became independent. This means that they cannot have a significant economic or managerial impact on the affairs of the organization.
By appointing independent directors, the Guillemot family hopes to prevent the takeover of Ubisoft by the French media corporation Vivendi. Vivendi currently owns 25% of the voting shares, while the Guillemot family has only 22% of such shares.
According to French law, if Vivendi increases its voting shares to 30%, it will be obliged to either try to absorb the company or reduce its share of shares below the 30% threshold.
The purchase of Ubisoft will cost Vivendi $6.4 billion. According to analysts’ forecasts, Vivendi may increase its share of voting shares by November of this year.
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