Ubisoft shoots up the stock market after taking over the cloud rights to Activision games

MADRID, 22 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The shares of the French video game development and publishing company Ubisoft recorded a rise of more than 7% on the Paris Stock Exchange, after the company reached an agreement to acquire the rights to broadcast in the cloud of video games from Activision Blizzard, current and to be released over the next 15 years, once Microsoft's acquisition of the 'Call of Duty' creator is complete.

In this sense, Ubisoft has highlighted that the agreement reached will grant the French company exclusive worldwide rights to broadcast Activision Blizzard games, except for non-exclusive rights for broadcast in the European Economic Area, adding that "these rights will exist in perpetuity." .

Likewise, the French company has defended that the acquisition of these rights will strengthen the content offer of its Ubisoft subscription service, in addition to allowing the company to grant streaming access licenses to the Activision Blizzard game catalog, including future releases, to cloud gaming companies, service providers and console manufacturers, helping to expand gamers' access to all streaming services.

"Today's deal will provide gamers with even more opportunities to access and enjoy some of the biggest gaming brands," said Chris Early, Ubisoft's senior vice president of strategic partnerships and business development.

The shares of the French studio recorded a revaluation of 7.17% on the Paris Stock Exchange before half session, to trade at 28.83 euros.

The agreement with Ubisoft is part of the restructuring of the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft raised with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), after the UK regulator blocked the transaction. , valued at about 69,000 million dollars (69,354 million euros), in the original terms.

In this way, after the confirmation of the blocking of the original agreement, the CMA has announced that Microsoft and Activision have presented a new restructured agreement for examination by the regulator in a new investigation that will be carried out in accordance with the usual processes and whose The legal deadline for making a decision will be October 18, 2023.

Under the restructured agreement, Microsoft will no longer acquire cloud rights for existing Activision games on PC and console, nor for new games released by Activision for the next 15 years (this excludes the European Economic Area).

Instead, these rights will be sold to French company Ubisoft Entertainment ahead of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision.

"The CMA has confirmed today that the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft, as originally proposed, cannot proceed," said Sarah Cardell, CEO of CMA, who stressed that the new restructured agreement presented by the companies "is substantially different from what was previously put on the table".

However, Cardell has warned that the new investigation into the restructured agreement "is not a green light", stressing that the CMA will carefully and objectively evaluate the details of the restructured agreement and its impact on competition.

On July 19, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agreed to extend until October 18 the deadline for the closing of the purchase by the Redmond giant of the studio responsible for video games such as the 'Call of Duty' saga.

The transaction, agreed at around 69,000 million dollars in January 2022, had initially set a closing date of July 18, 2023.