Ubisoft accused of hiding Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC from shareholders, sparking protests

A shareholder in Ubisoft is currently attempting to organize a protest out in front of the company's HQ in Paris, as Ubisoft has been accused of failing to disclose talks it has engaged in with Microsoft and Electronic Arts (EA), along with other publishers about acquiring Ubisoft franchises.

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Juraj Krúpa, the CEO of AJ Investments, has claimed Ubisoft hasn't been transparent with shareholders about its internal decision-making and, more specifically, has accused the company of deliberately "hiding information" about an Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC partnership it has engaged in with the Saudi investment firm Savvy Group. Krúpa, a shareholder in Ubisoft, claims the company is "horribly mismanaged by current management" and is requesting senior Ubisoft staff provide a "clear roadmap for recovery" in order to address the plummeting value of Ubisoft stock.

The minority shareholder also pointed to a recent article by business investment platform MergerMarket, which claimed Ubisoft engaged in discussion with "Microsoft, EA, and others that are interested in acquiring IPs from Ubisoft." Adding, "Management did not inform public about these steps either," said Krúpa.

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Ubisoft has since responded to the accusations and referenced what it stated during its Q3 financial report, "As we mentioned during our Q3 sales, the review of various transformational strategic and capitalistic options is ongoing. The Board has established an ad-hoc independent Committee to oversee this formal and competitive process, so as to extract the best value from Ubisoft's assets and franchises for all stakeholders. Ubisoft will inform the market in accordance with applicable regulations if and once a transaction materialises."

This news isn't totally surprising as it wasn't too long ago that we reported Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family was talking to Tencent about taking the company private, but one of the stipulations of the talks was the Guillemot family wanted to retain its control over the company, which caused Tenecent to be apprehensive about the idea.