Take 2 profits up
But share price plummets
Take 2 last night unveiled its financial results for the three months to April 30th, showing a profit of $9.6m compared to a loss of $11.5m this time last year. Revenues almost doubled, from $88 to $170m, largely thanks to the continuing chart dominating success of Grand Theft Auto 3, which has now shifted over six million units worldwide, making it the biggest PlayStation 2 hit to date. But bizarrely enough, despite these strong results and the promise of more good news to come later in the year, the company's share price dropped over 15% following the announcement, causing the entire games sector to dip in after hours trading. The reason? Stupid analysts apparently. Take 2 raised its earnings guidance (how much money it expects to make in the next three months) to $100m, but wildly optimistic analysts had expected the company to earn even more than that, somewhere in the region of $145m, to be precise. So even though the company is expecting to make more money this summer than it anticipated a few months ago, and beat both its own guidance and analysts' expectations in the last quarter, the share price still dropped sharply. Go figure. "To be fair, it was the analysts' view of how big (our upcoming quarter) should be and not the company's view", CEO Kelly Sumner told Reuters, as the value of his share options took a slide on the NASDAQ.