ERTS ($57 - $61) EPS -$12c beats estimates, smaller loss revenues jump
(UPDATE: adds share performance, revenue breakdown, industry comparisons)
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 26 (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc. (NasdaqNM:ERTS - news), a major video game publisher, on Thursday said fiscal first-quarter revenues increased 18 percent over the year-earlier quarter on strong sales of titles for new console platforms.
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The Redwood City, California-based company, one of the top producers of PC and console video games, reported a fiscal first-quarter pro forma net loss, after taxes and before special items, of $40.3 million, or 30 cents per share, compared with a loss of $38.7 million, or 30 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter.
On a net basis, the company lost $45.3 million, or 33 cents per share, compared with a loss of $42.3 million, or 33 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter.
Analysts had forecast a loss of 34 cents per share on average, according to estimates from 13 brokers surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call, with an estimated range of losses of 27 to 37 cents
Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 rose to $182 million from $154.8 million in the comparable quarter last year.
The loss was widely expected, in an industry where the majority of profits are earned in the fourth quarter, around the holiday season.
Shares in the company closed up 4.9 percent at $58.41 before the earnings announcement on Nasdaq. For the year, the company's shares are up over 31 percent, consistent with strong gains among other major game publishers.
In its core business, the publishing and distributing of video games, EA's pro forma loss narrowed 32 percent to $15.5 million from $22.8 million last year. Revenue in the core business increased 13 percent to $166.1 million from $146.4 million last year.
For EA.com [http://www.ea.com], the company's Internet property, which is not considered part of the core business, the pro forma loss widened by 57 percent to $24.8 million from $15.8 million last year. Revenue increased 86 percent to $16.4 million from $8.8 million last year.
For June 2001, EA was the No. 3 video game publisher overall based on dollars sold, and No. 1 among third-party publishers, according to the NPD Group's TRSTS Video Game Service. It was also the top publisher for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 console.
While the company had only one game in the top 20 for the month, it had five of the top 15 sports games, four of the top 15 simulation games, and four of the top 15 shooter games.
For the first half of the year, EA had two of the top 10 titles, based on units sold, according to a summary released by NPD on Thursday, ranking second only to Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Nintendo of America division, which had five of the top 10.
That NPD summary also showed that retail sales for video game hardware, software, and accessories rose 28 percent and unit sales rose 11 percent for the first half of this year compared to last year.
Earlier this week EA.com extended its exclusive partnership with AOL Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:AOL - news) America Online unit, adding 43 games from Pogo.com [http://www.pogo.com] to the AOL Games Channel. EA acquired Pogo in February.
Besides online games, EA is also well-known for sports games through its EA Sports division and simulation games like The Sims from its Maxis division.
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