Activision records the best performance for a non-holiday quarter

Jul 15, 2008 16:11 GMT  ·  By

With all this E3 madness going on, guess which company is relaxed and is counting its money? If you have read the title, you already know: it's Activision. And it seems that they're counting even more than expected which, combined with the Blizzard merger, will probably turn them into the most profitable business deal of recent times. So, if you want to be amazed, read on to find out the Q1 financial results of the company.

Initially expecting a $500 million in net revenues, Activision announced revenues of $650 million and earnings per diluted share between $0.16 and $0.18, on a stand alone basis. If you want to go into further details, here there are (but don't blame me for the headaches!):

Excluding the anticipated expenses of $0.02 and one-time costs of $0.03 per diluted share related to the alliance formed by Activision and Vivendi, the company's stand-alone non-GAAP earnings per diluted share are expected to be between $0.21 and $0.23, as an increase to Activision's prior non-GAAP outlook of $0.13 per diluted share which had excluded $0.02 per share for expenses related to equity-based compensation and $0.07 per share for one-time costs related to the business combination between Activision and Vivendi Games.

In other words, the moneymakers were Kung Fu Panda, which was the largest launch of a DreamWorks Animation licensed property by Activision, the Nintendo DS releases of Guitar Hero: On Tour and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (which was ranked as a top-five North American release).

"Activision's first quarter stand-alone net revenues and earnings were the highest ever for a non-holiday quarter," stated Robert Kotick, President and CEO of Activision Blizzard. "Our significant overperformance in Q1 would have further added to our previously given stand-alone fiscal 2009 net revenues and earnings outlook, making it by far the largest and most profitable year in Activision's history. As we have recently closed our transaction with Vivendi Games, we will be providing an outlook for Activision Blizzard as a combined company moving forward."

We're simply amazed and can't help but wonder: how much money is too much money?