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Technology Stocks : eidos--maker of Tomb Raider -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeff Lins who wrote (1218)	8/12/1998 10:17:00 AM
From: Harry	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1773

Some VERY nice publicity... Hey all, Just got my latest PSM magazine (also just found out that it's the top-selling Playstation mag in the U.S.), and it's plastered with Eidos's stuff. Here's a synopsis of what's in it: * TR3 and Lara as full cover art (done by David Finch, comic artist for Top Cow comics). * 4-page, 50-screenshot preview of TR3. Very cool. * 2-page interview with Adrian Smith, executive producer of the TR series at Core. * Special 8-page mini-brochure insert for Ninja, along with 3-page fold-out ad for Ninja on the inside of the back cover. * Special Unholy War insert with 8 "trading cards," each featuring one of the 14 characters/units from the game. * Unholy War ad on back cover. Here's some interesting info gleaned from the interview and preview: * Core is working on a new game for 1999 called Witchblade. It's based on the Top Cow comicbook Witchblade (FYI, Top Cow produced a special Tomb Raider/Witchblade comic book a while back). * Fighting Force II is going to be significantly different from the first one. In fact, they almost renamed the game entirely. "It's sort of Fighting Force but taking elements from, probably Goldeneye. It's third-person, it's character-based, but it's now moved to the next level in fighting and in what the game is about." * Ninja is supposed to be a "hack-and-slash, action-adventure game," and it uses its own engine (I'd previously posted that I thought it used the TR engine -- my bad). * TR was more puzzle-oriented. TR2 was more action-oriented. TR3 will be somewhere in between. * Adrian Smith doesn't seem to like any of the fore-runners for the Lara Croft role in the movie (specifically mentioned Hurly, Bullock, Demi, and laughed at Anna Nicole Smith). * Game engine for TR3 has "undergone a complete overhaul." FWIW, the screenshots in the preview showed some pretty sweet capabilities. Anyway, that's about it. 'Course, I realize the adage that good games don't mean good earnings, but with all the recent Ion Storm messiness, I thought it'd be nice to hear that Eidos's other ventures seem to be going well (as is their marketing and PR in the gaming world -- interesting that they're pretty poor on the investor side of things). Harry

To: Jeff Lins who wrote (1218)	8/12/1998 12:03:00 PM
From: Bleeker	Respond to of 1773

THQI withdrew its $60 million bond offering in the a.m. due to unfavorable market conditions (widening high yield spreads) and the stock is up $1 3/4 on the good news. This is the second co. in the sector in the past two days that has decided to preserve its balance sheet and investors rewarded the U-turns. GTIS is up 1/4 after the company decided to withdraw its bond offering. Here is the THQ link: biz.yahoo.com Jeff, when I first saw the GTIS report I thought it was released during market hours. I realized later that it was released after the close but still did not expect a huge move up today: the damage after news of a bond offering was swift when THQ and GT announced their plans. THQ shed $5 within a week of the news (more than $2 on the day of the news) and GT is still trading in single digits (granted, they have negative trailing earnings.) Perhaps a non-dilutive Sony deal would actually be good news, especially if Playstation sales are soaring in this off season as reported. The key is for the deal to be non-dilutive and for EIDOS to not take on too much overhead and R&D. Bond offerings seem to be out of favor with investors as two companies in the sector have now withdrawn their plans to do so. It makes sense: THQ and GT would have had to offer absurdly high yields to attract investors in this market. Here are some numbers to call to request that EIDOS file with the SEC electronically. While this is an optional move for them, even Bermuda-based RADAF does so. One way for EIDOS to expand its base of investors in the U.S. is to provide timely disclosures on all their filings instead of just releasing hard copies. Doing research on EIDOS should not be like going to the dentist circa 1817. Another reason why EIDOS suffers from a low P/E multiple: poor transparency and limited communication. It's odd given the master marketing on the Tomb Raider series. EIDOS PLC: 011 44 181 636-3000 Brainerd Communicators: 212 986-6667 EIDOS USA: 415 547-1200 Bleeker