Sawt Falasteen - Ubisoft shares plunge after grim annual results

The stock was trading at around 4.06 euros ($4.72) just after 11:00 am in Paris (1000 GMT), having touched lows of 3.88 euros.

Ubisoft forecast Wednesday "net bookings", its preferred revenue yardstick, of 250 million euros for the first quarter of its 2026-27 financial year, well short of the 285.5 million expected among analysts quoted by Bloomberg.

For the current financial year, Ubisoft reported a net loss of almost 1.5 billion euros, largely due to a massive restructuring that has seen it cancel seven games and delay six others.

"Management is presenting [the restructuring] as a necessary step in a long-term refounding. But this reading should not conceal the fact that Ubisoft continues to face several structural issues," said eToro analyst Antoine Fraysse-Soulier.

The games developer and publisher suffers from "a cost base that is still high, an irregular release calendar and a very strong dependence on a few historic franchises" such as "Assassin's Creed", he added.

Ubisoft chief executive Yves Guillemot warned that its full 2026-27 financial year would be "a low point" but that he expects a rebound beginning the following year as new titles are released.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST