Activision Results Down, But Still Beat The Street

The company earned $4.2 million (4 cents per share) during the quarter, off 80% from the $20.7 million (21 cents per share) it reported last year. Revenue fell 17%, to $158.7 million, from a year ago. Last year during the same quarter the company was riding high from the success of its Spider-Man game, but no comparable runaway hit materialized for the company this year. During the quarter, the company released X2 Wolverine's Revenge, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wakeboarding Unleashed, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, Medieval Total War: Viking Invasion, Lost Kingdoms 2. Unfortunately, the company's outlook for fiscal 2004 was just shy of what analysts were expecting, due to lower guidance for the current quarter. Activision believes it will have a fiscal Q2 loss of 13 cents a share, much worse than Wall Street's forecast for a profit of 3 cents a share. Company executives chalked up the lower guidance to the delay of TrueCrime until Q3. That caused the company's stock to sink 47 cents (4%) in trading today.