Re: Ubisoft runs itself into the ground

On Tue, 01 Oct 2024 15:36:14 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

It's not like we all didn't see this coming.
>
https://www.techspot.com/news/104950-ubisoft-investors-push-sale-shares-hit-decade-low.html

It should be noted that stock-price only occasionally corresponds with
actual performance of a company anymore, and in this case we should
definitely look at things with that in mind. Despite the under
performance of "Outlaws" (which honestly shouldn't have been a
surprise; Ubisoft was a poor fit for the franchise and many people
were wary of the game even before it came out) the company is still
well in the black. It just isn't making AS MUCH money as it hoped.

No, the stock fluctuations here have more to do with
yet-another-attempt to wrest control of the company from the Guillemot
family (which has had a majority stake in Ubisoft since the start),
and with how overvalued Ubisoft (and pretty much every video-game
company) became during the pandemic. The current stock price of
Ubisoft is only slightly below it's pre-pandemic value, which is to
say it more accurately reflects the actual value of the company now as
it leaves pandemic-bubble pricing (something that's happening to all
video-game publishers).

The point is, this depreciation has little to do with what games
Ubisoft is actually releasing, or any of its antics with DLC or live
services. It's a reflection of the market adjusting to the fact that
Ubisoft stock was _never_ really worth $70USD, and while it may be
upsetting to investors who bought it at that price and are now seeing
a loss, there's really very little that could be done to try and
maintain it at the pandemic-level valuations.

I've no fondness of the Guillemot stranglehold over Ubisoft; there's a
lot about the company's behavior, culture and games I dislike.
Honestly, a change in leadership may be necessary. But this current
challenge from investors --where they want more private equity firms
to have control of the company-- is not a good solution to anyone
except people who are only interested in the easily-manipulated stock
value.

Anyway, I suspect the stock price will go back up soon enough, albeit
never to the $70 valuation of a few years earlier. Challenges to the
leadership tend to cause a bit of a bidding war as both sides start
buying more 'unaffiliated' stock in order to shore up their
majorities.

TL;DR: ignore the dour Wall Street news about Ubisoft. It's more about
the struggle to control the company than the actual health of the
company.