Activision-Blizzard Profits $148m in Sept 11' Quarter
The last set of corporate data has arrived. Activision-Blizzard has just announced that revenues reached $754m for the September 2011 quarter, well ahead of the $650m the company had projected. Profit came to $148m for the quarter, well ahead of the forecast $57m. For the year to December 2011, Activision-Blizzard now expects revenues to reach $4.33b instead of $4.18b. Revenue in the December quarter is forecast to reach $980m. For the full year, Activision-Blizzard expects profit to reach $865m, up from the previous forecast of about $775m. Those figures may sound enormous, but for the first nine months of the fiscal year, Activision-Blizzard revenue has already reached $3.348b, with profit at $986m to date. Since Call of Duty revenue is typically deferred, it is not surprising to see Activision-Blizzard forecast about a $120m loss for the December quarter.
In the previous September quarter, Activision-Blizzard revenue reached $745m with a profit of only $51m, so the company has become much more profitable in the past year. The previous nine-month period to September had revenue of $3.019b with profit of $651m - and so in that time frame Activision-Blizzard revenues have grown 10% with a nearly 50% increase in profit - very healthy figures.
Activision-Blizzard listed the following as major highlights:
Activision Publishing's Call of Duty®: Black Ops has been the #1 best-selling title in dollars in aggregate across all platforms in the U.S. and Europe for each of the first three quarters of 2011.
To date, Call of Duty: Black Ops players have logged more than 2.8 billion hours of online gameplay.
Total unique online gamers playing Call of Duty: Black Ops were more than 29% greater than the total unique online gamers who played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® 2 during the first eleven months after each game's release.
For the third quarter, Blizzard Entertainment had two top-10 PC games in the U.S. and Europe with World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™ and StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™.(1)
For the first nine months of the calendar year, StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™ was the #1 best-selling game sku in dollars on the PC in the U.S. and Europe. (1)
As of September 30, 2011, Activision Blizzard had purchased approximately 45 million shares of its common stock, for an aggregate price of approximately $502 million, under the $1.5 billion stock repurchase program authorized by its Board of Directors in February 2011.
On October 21, 2011, Blizzard Entertainment announced plans for the fourth World of Warcraft expansion, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria™.
Q3 GAAP net revenues from digital channels were a record $427 million, accounting for 57% of total net revenues
Year to date, GAAP net revenues from digital channels grew 25% to $1.28 billion, accounting for 38% of total net revenues
Year to date, non-GAAP net revenues from digital channels grew 16% to $1.25 billion, accounting for 60% of total net revenues
Year to date, the company has generated record operating margin and earnings per share (EPS)
The company also provided a breakdown of its revenues by platform:
- In the September 2011 quarter, online subscriptions were 44% of revenue ($336m), X360 was 19% of revenue ($144m), PS3 was 13% of revenue ($96m), distribution was 10% of revenue ($77m), PC & Other was 6% of revenue ($45m), Wii was 4% of revenue ($33m), DS was 2% of revenue ($15m), and PS2 and PSP were each 1% of revenue ($4m).
- Subscriptions grew from $289m to $336m in the Sept 2010 to Sept 2011 quarter, with X360 growing from $127m to $144m, distribution also grew from $62m to $77m, and PSP grew to $4m from $3m. PS3 shrank from $109m to $96m though, Wii shrank from $56m to $33m, PC & Other shrank from $73m to $45m, PS2 shrank from $6m to $4, and DS shrank from $20m to $15m.
- In the nine months to September 2011, subscriptions were 33% of revenue ($1.09b), X360 was 25% of revenue ($840m), PS3 was 20% of revenue ($676m), PC and Other was 8% of revenue ($251m), Distribution was 6% of revenue ($214m), as was Wii ($185m), DS was 2% of revenue ($70m), and PSP and PS2 $12m & $10m respectively for about 0.3% of revenue each.
- Subscriptions grew to $1090m from $890m in the nine months to September 2011 compared to that period in 2010. X360 grew to $840m from $751m, PS3 grew to $676m from $595m, PC & Other grew to $251m from $201m, Distribution grew to $214m from $185m, and PSP grew to $12m from $11m. Wii shrank from $267m to $185m, PS2 shrank from $29m to $10m, and DS shrank from $90m to $70m.
