Gameloft has been one of the most consistent (if not one of the most respected) game developers since the beginning of the mobile gaming boom, though the company began on consoles. Vivendi, an enormous French media empire with interests in music, movies, video games, and pretty much every other entertainment industry, is attempting a hostile stock takeover of Gameloft, according to Bloomberg. The larger company has already purchased over 30% of Gameloft's stock, and is now offering 6 euros a share for the remaining amount.

Gameloft began humbly, founded in Paris by former executives of Ubisoft. Gameloft was one of the only companies that made high-end games for the old iOS and Windows Mobile platforms. Gameloft was ideally placed to release premium games for iOS and Android when they rose to take over the smartphone world around 2010. While the company initially focused on paid original games and lucrative licenses from movies and larger game publishers (often being derided for "copycat" series like Asphalt, Gangstar, and Modern Combat), Gameloft has transitioned to the dominant free-to-play model for most of its latest releases.

The stock was as high as 8 euro in late 2014, but the recent race to the bottom in mobile gaming has seen price dip as low as 3.27 in the last year. Prices rose dramatically after Vivendi began investing, and spiked to 6.40 on Friday. Vivendi will likely need to increase its bid due to trading after the initial news broke. Bloomberg reports that Gameloft's board will meet to discuss the situation next week, issuing a statement afterward. High-ranking members of the board, including CEO and co-founder Michel Guillemot, are reportedly opposed to the takeover. Vivendi is also taking steps to acquire Ubisoft, another French developer and publisher, which is one of the largest gaming companies in the world.

Gameloft claims that it employs 5000 people at 19 different studios across the world, and that it has more than 2.5 billion game downloads on smartphones and tablets. Its 2015 sales were approximately 285 million USD.

Source: Bloomberg