Pachter: Ubisoft to double revenue by 2010

With more than 5 million copies of Assassin's Creed and 2.5 million units of its Imagine series out the door, Ubisoft emerged from this holiday season as one of its biggest winners. Reporting on its third-quarter revenues yesterday, the publisher announced €450 million (approximately $655 million) in revenues, a 44 percent hike over the same period in 2006. For the full fiscal year ending March 31, Ubisoft is now expecting sales of €875 million ($1.3 billion), up from initial projections of €825 million ($1.19 billion).

Its current victories notwithstanding, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes Ubisoft's best times are yet to come. "Ubisoft is well positioned to gain share over the next several years, and continues to execute well on its strategy to gain share on each next generation platform," said Pachter in a research note to investors today. "By fiscal year 2010, we believe that the company is in a position to more than double revenues from fiscal year 2007 levels."

Pachter believes Ubisoft's mounting momentum is attributable to its strong lineup of upcoming releases in fiscal year 2009. Franchises he calls out specifically as thickening Ubisoft's bottom line include Splinter Cell, Brothers in Arms, Far Cry, Prince of Persia, Anno, EndWar, Haze, a Shaun White snowboarding game, and a Tom Clancy air combat game. Mentioning the publisher's delay of a quartet of underground titles in October, Pachter believes gamers can expect a few other "positive surprises" to be revealed in 2008.

Pachter notes that Ubisoft's strong performance in 2007 helped solidify the publisher as one of the leading third-party publishers in terms of market share. After announcing its third-quarter results yesterday, Ubisoft is trading up more than 10 percent to 57.09 on the Paris stock exchange as of market close today.