Ubisoft has more than one problem: they are not only being taken over by Vivendi as 2016 comes to an end, but there’s also a few executives being investigated!
Kotaku wrote about how Ubisoft Montreal’s CEO (Yannis Mallat), as well as four other executives, are investigated by Autorité Des Marches Financiers (AMF), France’s stock market regulator because the five of them are accused of insider trading.
The five bosses sold stocks the week before October 15, 2013 – selling stocks are alright, but if you do it just before Ubisoft announces the delay of Watch Dogs and The Crew to 2014, it would be a little too suspicious. Mind you, the French company’s stocks dropped by 25% after the delay announcements. Guess who got money out of the event! It’s Mallat and co.!
This sale is why AMF is looking around because they might have known about the delays early. However, Mallat‘s interview with Canadian La Presse says that he didn’t have any insider information.
Ubisoft‘s statement submitted to Kotaku says that the company is not investigated by AMF, and the Canadian team’s three members (remember; Ubisoft is based in Paris, France!) are seeking damages against AMF.
Whatever the end of this story will be, Ubisoft will be shed in a bad light…
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