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Technology Stocks : THQ,Inc. (THQI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeff Bond who wrote (7390)	8/3/1998 12:35:00 AM
From: Todd D. Wiener	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14266

Jeff- Expanding distribution capabilities would complement THQ's recent expansion of its development and publishing capabilities, so it makes sense from a "balanced" approach to growth. Perhaps THQ will expand to Japan as well (and acquire a small Japanese studio), so that THQ can distribute its proprietary titles to Japanese consumers (and have the Japanese studio translate the English-->Japanese). This would allow THQ to introduce their new, proprietary titles (which are going to comprise a greater portion of revenues in the future) to a large, previously untapped gaming market. This strategy would complement THQ's existing publishing of Japanese titles in the US. Just imagine how much incremental revenue could be obtained by releasing WCW or WWF titles in Japan (where wrestling in very popular). Also, titles such as SpeedTribes may be popular in Japan, but only if the gamers can understand the game text (hence the Japanese development/translation studio). Obviously, THQ doesn't need to acquire a Japanese development studio to translate titles into Japanese, but it could allow THQ to create original Japanese titles for the Japan market. I'm sure VP Haller has some input in this area. It seems that the most important move for THQ would be to expand international operations, both in Europe and Asia. The addition of these markets to THQ's current business would provide strong growth. Farrell has been emphasizing that THQ's international subsidiary hasn't been growing very fast, and the international markets represent significant opportunity in the future. The $60 million could go a long way toward fulfilling such opporunity. I think the aforementioned use of the capital would be much wiser than an outright buy of MPRS. In fact, if THQ bought a few titles from MPRS and expanded the international ops as I've suggested, I'd be quite impressed and pleased. After such moves are made, THQ would have a strong global presence and a strong presence in the PC market. It would also have established PC successes, ready for porting to the next generation, 128-bit machines. Todd