French publishing giant Ubisoft could be the latest firm to be bought out.

Bloomberg reports that "several equity firms" – including Blackstone and KKR – are looking into acquiring the Assassin's Creed maker. Ubisoft is apparently yet to enter into any serious negotiations just yet, so we could be a long way from the firm being bought up.

"We don’t comment on rumors or speculation," a Ubisoft spokesperson said.

"Ubisoft has unmatched creative and production capacities, with more than 20,000 talented people collaborating across our global studios on game development. Thanks to them and to our long-term approach and appetite for taking creative risks, we have built some of the industry’s strongest proprietary brands and have many promising new brands and projects on the horizon. We also have one the industry’s deepest and most diversified portfolios, cutting-edge services and technologies, and a large and growing community of engaged players. As a result, we’re ideally positioned to capitalise on the rapid industry growth and platform opportunities that are emerging right now."

Ahead of the news on Friday, April 22nd, Ubisoft's stock price was €33.97; at the time of writing, it has risen to €40.86.

In recent years, the firm's value has declined substantially in part due to some games missing the mark commercially, but also due to reports of widespread harassment at Ubisoft. The firm has attempted to right the ship, but is still apparently not doing enough.

Were Ubisoft to be bought, this would be the latest in a series of huge buyouts that have included Microsoft's $68.7 billion effort to buy Activision Blizzard and Take-Two snapping up Zynga. 

Disclaimer: Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who has worked with Ubisoft on projects in the past.