Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family and Tencent are considering taking the company private amid high-profile flops and collapsing share prices – IGN

Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family and shareholder Tencent are considering teaming up to take the company private after several high-profile video game flops and a slump in its share price.

Bloomberg reports that the two sides are talking to advisers to stabilize Ubisoft after the company's shares fell 54% this year. The publication qualifies that these exploratory talks are going nowhere, and that a buyout isn't the only option being discussed. Ubisoft declined to comment.

The Guillemot family, including Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot, holds just over 20% of Ubisoft's shares, with Tencent owning just over 9%. At the time this article was published, shares of Ubisoft were up 26.33% on the news.

Ubisoft has endured a terrible year with disappointing returns from Call of Duty competitor XDefiant and, more recently, Star Wars Outlaws. It delayed Assassin's Creed Shadows to 2025 due to poor sales of Outlaws, and its workers staged a strike later this month.

In his latest note to investors, Guillemot acknowledged that the company's “second quarter fell short of expectations” and pledged to launch “a review aimed at further improving our performance.” He also addressed some of the cultural conversations happening around the company recently, which have intensified around Star Wars Outlaw and the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadow.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft has canceled Epic Game Store timed exclusivity for its PC games and Steam has gone back to day one launchA move clearly designed to boost flagging sales of its games

Wesley is IGN's UK News Editor. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or privately at wyp100@proton.me.