The latest issue of the excellent Escapist magazine is all about Ubisoft, current owners of our beloved franchise. It turns out the company itself is something of an enigma, as the editor notes in the issue's introduction:

They've been around forever and who doesn't own at least one Ubisoft title? And, well, I don't know anything about them. How does that happen? Who is Ubisoft, anyway?
...
What we didn't know is how hard it would be to get anything at all from Ubisoft. There's a reason no one knows anything about Ubisoft - they don't talk to journalists. I'm not complaining; I'm really just not sure what to make of it.

In the issue are articles on what one writer considers the defining features of the company's games, Ubisoft's strategy of using offshore development teams, the controversial Ubisoft-sponsored Frag Dolls clan, Tom Clancy games and the oft-overlooked (and excellent) Beyond Good and Evil. The whole issue is worth checking out.