Ubisoft 'Acqusition' Due to Accounting Error

Ubisoft released their earnings report on November 21, revealing that the company wasn’t bought. An apparent accounting issue caused the delay in publishing the H1 fiscal year 2025-2026 earnings.

On November 19, Ubisoft’s Chief Financial Officer Frederick Duguet, informed staff that the company will pause Ubisoft’s stock “to limit unnecessary speculation and market volatility.” In an internal memo, Duguet said, “I wanted to let you know that we are taking extra time to finalize the closing of the semester, and as a result we will publish our first-half earnings results in the coming days instead of tonight.”

Ubisoft’s Financial Report Delay

Ubisoft requested that Euronext halt trading of its shares and bonds until the “publication of its first-half 2025-26 results.” Grant Taylor-Hill of Insider Gaming wrote, “The leading belief was that Ubisoft was going to uncover something huge, such as an imminent buyout. That has not proven to be the case thus far.”

According to the earnings report, Tencent’s €1.16 billion (approximately $1.34 billion) investment in Vantage Studios will close in the coming days, meeting all precedent conditions. The investment will deleverage the studio, enabling the acceleration of Vantage Studios’ IP growth, support specific investment opportunities across the rest of the company and “facilitate ongoing reorganization efforts.” Deleveraging is the act of raising capital or selling assets to reduce debt.

Ubisoft’s Accounting Situation

Ubisoft’s earnings report also revealed that a review of its analysis concerning the IFRS 15 revenue recognition of a partnership in fiscal year 2024-2025. This led to the company restating its FY2024-2025 accounts under IAS 8. The IFRS 15 is an accounting standard, which “establishes the principles that an entity applies when reporting information about the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows from a contract with a customer.”

The report also revealed that the group’s position contributed to a partnership signed in Q2 FY2025-2026, which was not recognized as IFRS 15 revenue. This resulted in the company “not complying with its leverage covenant ratio under certain existing financing agreements at September 30, 2025.”

The IAS 8 is an accounting standard, which prescribes criteria for “selecting and changing accounting policies, together with the accounting treatment and disclosure of changes in accounting policies, changes in accounting estimates and corrections of errors.”