Ubisoft once again outperforms the market in 2003:
o In the United States a market up by 1% (PCs and consoles) Ubisoft grew by 42% in 12 months, ranking 7th among independent publishers.
o In Europe, Ubisoft became #2 leading independent publisher in France1 (+2 ranks), #3 in Germany² (+1 rank) and #6 in the United Kingdom3 (+1 rank)
Ubisoft creates two new brands and is voted publisher of the year:
o Prince of Persia The Sands of Time (2 million units) ranked among the top 10 in the main European territories, and Tom Clancys Rainbow Six3 (1.3 million units) became one of the five top-selling games on X-BoxTM in most European countries since its launch.
o Ubisoft was voted Publisher of the Year by Gamezone. Prince of Persia The Sands of Time PlayStation2 received two awards: Game of the Year by Electronic Gaming Monthly and Best Multi-Platform Game by Gamezone. Tom Clancys Rainbow Six3 was voted Best FPS 2003 Game by IGN. These achievements demonstrate that Ubisoft is successfully pursuing its strategy of developing enduring brands that will allow to increase the recurrence of its activity on a long term view.
The postponement of a product and lower-than-expected sales of new brands impact 2003/04 operating income:
o The postponement of the launch of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow on PlayStation2 and of GameCube impacted operating income by 30 million. The release of the X-BoxTM, PC and GameBoy Advance versions is scheduled for March.
o In a very competitive year-end market, sales of new brands such as Beyond Good and Evil and XIII, products which had been heavily marketed, were lower than the early-December forecasts. This had an impact of 10 million.
o This has led the group to record a one time amortization, particularly on Beyond Good and Evil and XIII, for a total of 15 million.
New prospects for 2003/04:
o Sales: over 490million (at an average exchange rate of $1.18 per euro for the year), or a growth at constant rates of at least 17%;
o Gross margin: over 61%;
o Operating income: approximately 15 million according to French accounting standards, before the one time amortization of 15 million, and 20 million according to pro forma accounting standards;
o Net free cash flow excluding acquisition: approximately 30 million.
hab sie allerdings auch fast alle für die box...
