There's an interesting
article over at GameIndustry.Biz that covers how the success of
Assassin's Creed could help Ubisoft fight off a buyout by Electronic Arts. With the game selling so well it increases Ubisoft's value making them a harder company to takeover because that's more money that EA would have to spend on the company.
It's also worth speculating that this increased value could be leveraged by Ubisoft to purchase another game company or publisher. We've already
talked about Sega looking to buy another company but it would not surprise me to see Ubisoft in the market to buy another company or to.