Why did Ubisoft Entertainment stock jump today? Microsoft's Activision pursuit
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Ubisoft Entertainment (OTCPK:UBSFY)
jumped 8.5% today - to its highest point in more than three months - as merger/acquisition talk took over the videogame sector.
That followed the morning's announcement of Microsoft sealing a deal for its biggest-ever acquisition, of videogaming icon Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) for just under $69 billion.

Considering the heavy regulatory lifting that will be required for that deal to pass muster, the thinking goes that if Microsoft can successfully acquire one of the publishing giants, then anything goes in the sector.
And more than for Activision's peers Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) and Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO), that would particularly go for the smaller publishers like France's Ubisoft, known for such hits as the Assassin's Creed and Tom Clancy's series as well as Watch Dogs, Far Cry and Prince of Persia.

At a market cap of around $6.34 billion, it's not small - but is more of a snack compared to Activision Blizzard (with a $50.9 billion market cap).
One challenge in any acquisition is the relatively close nature in which the company is held by the Guillemot family, with an 18.5% stake. Investors could presume that the family would go along with a deal that made sense, though it successfully warded off a hostile takeover attempt years ago by Vivendi, which steadily built a stake in order to trigger a takeover threshold.