Vivendi Names Stephane Roussel CEO of Gameloft
June 29 2016 - 2:10PM
Dow Jones News
PARIS—Vivendi SA Wednesday named one of its top executives as
Chief Executive of Gameloft SE, weeks after prevailing in its
efforts to gain control of the French videogame publisher.
Vivendi Chief Operating Officer Stephane Roussel, who will also
be chairman, is among five members named by Vivendi to the board of
Gameloft, a company known for making games for mobile phones.
"We intend to mobilize our expertise to develop franchises from
Gameloft, its partners and from Vivendi, and deploy them as widely
as possible," Mr. Roussel said in a letter to Gameloft employees.
"You will be fully-integrated member of the Vivendi family while
maintaining your distinctiveness and originality."
Vivendi, run by billionaire businessman Vincent Bolloré , is
seeking to transform itself from a holding company with interests
in a variety of sectors to an integrated media company with a focus
on Southern Europe. It has made videogames a key focus of the
transformation, also building a more than 20% stake in Gameloft's
larger sister company Ubisoft Entertainment SA, which is known for
franchises including "Assassin's Creed" and "The Division".
Earlier on Wednesday, Gameloft's board resigned, saying it
disagreed with Vivendi's strategic vision and management methods.
Management at both Gameloft and Ubisoft have been fighting off
Vivendi for months, saying it doesn't know the videogame business
and would destroy shareholder value.
Write to Nick Kostov at Nick.Kostov@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 29, 2016 13:55 ET (17:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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