Revenue and Losses Increase at Take Two

Take Two has revealed its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008 and the results are all but good. The company that published such hits as Grand Theft Auto IV, developed by Rockstar, has seen revenue from videogames sales increase, while the losses it has incurred reached 15 million dollars, which is double the amount it lost in the same period of 2007. Sales for the quarter that has just ended rose by 11% to reach more than 323 million dollars.

One positive aspect is the fact that for the whole 2008, Take Two managed to obtain operating profits which totaled 97.1 million dollars, which board chairman Strauss Zelnick referred to as “the strongest revenue and earnings in our company's history.” The main videogames that brought in money for the company were GTA IV, which has recently been released for the PC, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, NBA 2K9 and Sid Meier's Civilizations: Revolution. The GTA labeled games accounted for more than 60% of the company's revenue.

This over reliance on just one intellectual property has led Take Two, which is not scheduled to release a major GTA game in 2009, to say that it is very cautious regarding sales figures and profits for the next year. Still, Ben Feder, the president of Take Two, said that his company is “continuing to invest in the growth of our creative resources,” which means that they are looking to hire talented individuals.

As the company presented its conservative 2009 outlook, which included the possibility of no dividends per share during next year, its stock took a plunge, going under 10 dollars per share in trading. Earlier in 2008, Electronic Arts was interested in acquiring Take Two but after lengthy negotiations, the two could not agree on the price that was to be paid.