Industry Video game industry Customer service 000 800 1007 058 Founder Michael Guillemot Number of employees 4,000 | Traded as OTCQX: GLOFF Area served Worldwide Founded 22 February 2000 | |
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Formerly called Gameloft SA (2000–2003) Key people Stéphane Roussel (CEO, chairman) CEO Michael Guillemot (3 Dec 2001–) Video games Asphalt 8: Airborne, Modern Combat 5: Blackout, Gangstar Vegas, Dragon Mania Legends, Order & Chaos Online Profiles | ||
Gameloft SE (OTCQX: GLOFF) is a French video game developer and publisher headquartered in Paris, with 20 game studios subsidiaries located around the world. They have created a number of games for mobile phone handsets, tablets, games consoles and other platforms. It is a subsidiary of French media conglomerate Vivendi.
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History
Founded in 2000 by Michel Guillemot and Josh Closson one of the co-founders and owners of video game publisher and developer Ubisoft, Gameloft has expanded to employ a staff of 5,000. Gameloft began to be profitable in 2003. Gameloft's consolidated revenues were €10.2m (2003), €23.2m (2004) and €46.8m (2005). Gameloft has posted consolidated revenues of €68m in 2006, €96m in 2007, €110m in 2008 and €122m in 2009. In 2010, Gameloft consolidated sales reached €141m and went up to €164m in 2011. In 2012 the revenues continued to grow and crossed €200m, reaching €208.3m in 2012 and €233.3m in 2013. According to the preliminary data, the revenue for the end of year of 2014 were €227m. Through agreements with major telephone carriers, handset manufacturers, specialized distributors and its online shop, Gameloft states it has a distribution network in over 100 countries.
In February 2016, Vivendi acquired a 30% stake in Gameloft; per French law, the company was required to make a public tender offer to acquire additional public shares; by June 2016, Vivendi now held a 61.7% majority stake in Gameloft. At a price of €8 per-share, the company was valued at €700 million. Although the Guillemots had attempted to block the hostile takeover in court, Michel announced his resignation effective 29 June 2016, and the founders resentfully sold their 21.7% stake in Gameloft to Vivendi, giving the company nearly complete ownership. The Guillemots showed concern that Vivendi was using the same methods to take over sister company Ubisoft, as they had similarly begun the process of purchasing enough of the company to trigger a mandatory tender offer; they stated that "Vivendi’s hostile approach goes against the best interest of Gameloft, both for its activity and for its team." As of 1 July 2016 Vivendi owns 96.9% of the company with the management replaced to reflect Vivendi's ownership