Electronic Arts loses $82M

Reuters
February 08, 2010

Electronic Arts Inc. posted slightly better-than-expected profit for its holiday quarter, but the video game publisher set a forecast that fell short of Wall Street's targets.

EA shares fell 6 percent in after-hours trading on the news, which followed the company's pre-announcement last month.

The publisher of Madden NFL and Mass Effect reported Monday a net loss of $82 million US, or 25 cents a share, in the fiscal third-quarter ended Dec. 31, versus a loss of $641 million, or $2 a share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding items, EA earned 33 cents a share, versus the average analyst estimate of 31 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 25 percent to $1.2 billion, while non-GAAP revenue came in at $1.35 billion. Wall Street was estimating $1.34 billion.

For the current quarter, EA forecast non-GAAP earnings of 2 cents to 6 cents a share on non-GAAP revenue of $800 million to $850 million.

For fiscal 2011, EA forecast non-GAAP earnings of 50 cents to 70 cents a share on non-GAAP revenue of $3.65 billion to $3.9 billion.

Shares of Redwood City, California-based EA closed at $17.49 on Nasdaq and fell to $16.40 in extended trading.

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