Angry Shareholder Calls For Protest Against Ubisoft, Accuses ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Studio Of Being “Horribly Mismanaged” And “Hiding Information” From Investors
“The shareholders are revolting!” With their market value falling at the speed of an Assassin’s Creed swan-dive over the past year, Ubisoft executives have likely had both interpretations of that statement flash across their mind over the last few years – but now, it looks like one shareholder is moving to make that statement more than just a hypothetical.
According to a new report, AJ Investments CEO Juraj Krúpa, whose company owns a minority stake in the French developer, is reportedly calling for his fellow investors to join him in an upcoming physical protest outside Ubisoft’s Paris headquarters.
In an official company statement, as seen and relayed to the public by IGN’s Vikki Blake, Krúpa condemned Ubisoft as being “horribly mismanaged by current management,” in doing so demanding that the company’s leadership both provide them with “a clear roadmap for recovery” and address their “declining shareholder value, lackluster operational execution, and failure to adapt effectively to market trends.”
Further, the CEO alleged that more than just poor shareholder value – Ubisoft’s stocks currently sit at a 10-year all time low – the company has also been less than honest in their operations, to the extent that they are supposedly “hiding information” from investors.
To his point, he cited the rumored partnership with the Saudi-based Savvy investment firm to produce their first DLC pack for Assassin’s Creed Mirage and the reported discussion between the studio, Microsoft, and EA regarding the latter two entity’s potential interest “in acquiring IPs from Ubisoft.”
Notably, Krúpa took particular issue with Ubisoft’s conduct around the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
“Management postponed its current game (which should save the company and its financials) Assassin’s Creed [Shadows] first time on 18th of July 2024. On that date, Ubisoft confirmed full-year guidance for the year and release of AC Shadows on November 15. 2024. Just [a] couple months later, in September 2024, Ubisoft delayed the game again and revised its guidance, which in our view, was [a] move that could have [been] predicted by Ubisoft management.”
“After [the] third delay, the game will finally be published on March 20, 2025,” he continued. “These delays and revised guidances caused severe stock declines, which harmed mostly retail investors that have limited resources to manage their positions accordingly. This action benefited mainly corporate and institutional investors who were on the buy side for distressed prices such as Credit Agricole, Goldman Sachs clients, Morgan Stanley, and others.”
“We are aware that Ubisoft’s management and CEO have initiated a financial review of potential strategic options, advised by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan,” he further noted. “We expect this review to yield results in the coming months.”
In light of what he deemed as Ubisoft’s failure to “appropriately” communicate with investors, Krúpa is calling on any and all investors who are “frustrated with the prolonged stagnation in Ubisoft’s stock performance and the lack of decisive action from the management team” to join him and AJ Investments to protest the company – Literally.
“That is why we are organizing this demonstration in May,” said Krúpa, “to ensure they have time to reach a conclusion that genuinely increases shareholder value. If their conclusion effectively enhances shareholder value, we will call off the demonstration.”
“All shareholders/investors of Ubisoft deserve a company that maximizes value and operates with transparency and accountability,” he asserted. “Ubisoft has continued to underperform compared to its industry peers, and it is time for the company to listen to its shareholders. This demonstration will be a powerful statement from investors who believe in the company’s potential but demand urgent change.”
In closing out his statement, Krúpa affirmed that if nothing changed, he and AJ Investors were fully ready to “sue the company for misleading investors”.
Responding to AJ Investors’ statement with one of their own, as issued via IGN, Ubisoft declined to confirm any of the allegations, but insisted that everything there were doing was within the law.
“As we mentioned during our Q3 sales, the review of various transformational strategic and capitalistic options is ongoing,” said a company spokesperson. “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.”
Sadly, such anger from Ubisoft shareholders has been a long-time coming.
In September last year, a slump in shares prompted by the failure of Star Wars Outlaws led the same AJ Investments penned the now-infamous open letter demanding Ubisoft go private or be sold.
However, it would take a further month of tumbling stock value and layoffs for the company to actually get their butts in gear, with an October report from Bloomberg suggesting that Ubisoft’s founding Guillemot family were considering a buyout from Chinese tech-giant Tencent.
At current, no developments have been made on that front.
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