Vivendi upped its bid for app publisher Gameloft, after an earlier offer was rejected for being against the smaller company’s interests.

On 18 February, Vivendi announced its intent to launch an offer for Gameloft shares at a price of €6 per share, which, according to the Financial Times, valued the company at around €500 million. Vivendi has now increased its bid to €7.20 per share, valuing the target at €610 million.

After the initial bid, Gameloft’s board of directors “unanimously observed” that the offer was “against the interests of Gameloft, its shareholders, its employees and its customers”.

In a strong-worded statement, Gameloft said “none of Vivendi’s businesses can bring attractive synergies to Gameloft”, and that the financial terms of the offer do not reflect Gameloft’s “intrinsic valuation and future prospects”.

It added that it was concerned about the “adverse impact on staff due to the hostile nature of Vivendi’s offer and in particular on its creative teams and their management”, and that Vivendi’s continuous increase in Gameloft shares was done in a way that “deceived and adversely affected minority shareholders who sold their shares to Vivendi”.

The video game maker said its board will meet at a later stage to issue “a detailed and substantiated recommendation on the terms of the tender offer, in compliance with relevant regulation.”

Vivendi’s offer followed its passing of the 30 per cent ownership threshold in Gameloft.

Earlier this month, Gameloft’s founding family, the Guillemots, upped their stake in the company to curb Vivendi’s influence.

Meanwhile, Vivendi also has its eyes on another game publisher, Ubisoft, and issued a statement saying it is the company’s largest shareholder and had crossed the 15 per cent ownership threshold.