Gameloft
Gameloft SE is a French video game publisher based in Paris, founded in December 1999 by Ubisoft co-founder Michel Guillemot. The company operates 18 development studios worldwide, and publishes games with a special focus on the mobile games market. Formerly a public company traded at the Paris Bourse, Gameloft was acquired by media conglomerate Vivendi in 2016.
History[edit]
Game development strategy[edit]
Gameloft was founded by Michel Guillemot, one of the five founders of Ubisoft, on 14 December 1999.[2][3] By February 2009, Gameloft had shipped over 200 million copies of its games since its IPO,[4] as well as 2 million daily downloads of its games via the App Store for iOS.[5][6] Gameloft's chief financial officer (CFO), Alexandre de Rochefort, noted that the company's games generated about 400 times more revenue on iOS than on Android, partially because Google did not develop its Google Play storefront to "entice customers to actually buy products"; as a result of which Gameloft heavily cut its investments in Android games development in November 2009.[7][8] In July 2010, Gameloft instead attempted to sell Android games directly through its website, avoiding the use of Google Play.[9]
In a May 2011 keynote, de Rochefort stated that he wanted to avoid moving the company to the NASDAQ stock exchange, as the U.S. games market appeared to be nothing more than a large economic bubble, especially when seeing Zynga's then US$10 billion total stock value.[10]
Gameloft's games have often been accused of being clones of other properties;[11][12][13][14] when asked about it at the November 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, chief executive officer (CEO) Michel Guillemot stated "The videogame industry has always played around a limited number of themes. There is maybe one new idea a year."[15][16] In response to many users commenting on Guillemot's remarks, Levi Buchanan of IGN defended Gameloft, stating that its games were usually well-polished, in contrary to the original concepts' games.[17]
By July 2014, Gameloft announced that they would focus more strongly on quality than on quantity, as was stated to have previously been the case.[18]
In April 2013, Texan company Lodsys filed a lawsuit against Gameloft, among other mobile game developers, for infringing its patent on in-app purchases.[19] Similar lawsuits were previously intervened by Apple Inc., who claim to have licensed the technology from Lodsys for usage in its App Store.[20]
In February 2012 and February 2016, Gameloft penned publishing contracts with GREE, Inc. and GungHo Online Entertainment, respectively, to facilitate its presence in the Asian market.[21][22]
Vivendi subsidiary[edit]
In October 2015, French media conglomerate Vivendi announced that they had acquired a 6.2% stake in Gameloft's stock,[23] which was quickly raised to 10.2% a few days later.[24] By February 2016, Vivendi had acquired 30% in the company, and launched a hostile takeover bid.[25][26] In accordance with French law, Vivendi started a tender offer to acquire further shares.[27]
Following the announcement, Gameloft's board of directors strongly advised shareholders against selling stock to Vivendi to avoid the hostile takeover.[28] By May 2016, Vivendi had won over the majority of shareholders, enabling them to move forward in the takeover.[29]
The acquisition was completed on 1 June 2016, with Vivendi having acquired 56%, an absolute majority over Gameloft's ownership.[30][31] Employees of Gameloft were presented with an open letter welcoming them to the new parent company's family.[32][33]
Analysts believed that the takeover was just the first step towards also purchasing Ubisoft, another video game venture founded by Guillemot and his brothers, although Vivendi only held a 17.7% minority in that company at the time.[34][35][36] In response to Vivendi's actions, Guillemot announced that he would step down from his company and join his brother Yves Guillemot at Ubisoft to prevent it from also being taken over.[37][38] Guillemot later clarified that his stepping-down would take effect on 29 June.[39][40]
On 8 June, the Guillemot brothers announced that they were regretfully selling their ownership in Gameloft to Vivendi.[41][42] The transaction awarded Vivendi another 21.7% in Gameloft's capital.[43][44] After Guillemot departed from Gameloft on 29 June, Vivendi set up a new board of directors for the company, with Vivendi's present chief operating officer (COO), Stéphane Roussel, appointed Gameloft's chairman and CEO, and Gameloft's previous CFO, de Rochefort, additionally taking over the management of the company's 39 subsidiaries.[45] At that point, Vivendi owned 95.94% of Gameloft's share capital.[46]