Slovakia-based hedge fund AJ Investments has caused chaos on the stock market for Paris-based game publisher Ubisoft after it called on the company to go private and exit the stock market.
Citing the less-than-stellar release of Star Wars Outlaws and an accompanying stock plunge last week, AJ Investments sent a strongly worded, open letter to Ubisoft’s board of directors, CEO Yves Guillemot, and minority investor Tencent Holdings urging the company to go private or sell to a strategic investor, oust Guillemot and his family (who founded the company), and institute further layoffs. The open letter also threatened to put together a coalition of other minority shareholders to engage in a proxy fight that would force a sale if the firm’s demands were not met. AJ Investments holds approximately 1% of Ubisoft, as of this writing.
“Ubisoft at [its] current state is mismanaged and shareholders are hostages of Guillemot family members and Tencent who take advantage of them,” an excerpt from the open letter states. The letter goes on to complain about canceled projects (The Division Heartland), and other titles such as Prince of Persia: Lost Crown, Skull and Bones, Rainbow Six Siege, and game franchises the company has owned but not utilized in years including Rayman, Splinter Cell, Watch Dogs, and For Honor, among others.
The bone of contention appears to really be with Star Wars Outlaws, which the group says needed more time for development and was released early, citing current review scores for the game. Overall, review aggregation site Metacritic gives the game an average score of 75 on Xbox, 76 on PS5, and 76 on PC from critics. Star Wars Outlaws was not released on either Steam or the Epic Games Store.
The public drama coupled with current market conditions and the less-than-stellar reception of Star Wars Outlaws has caused Ubisoft stock to drop: