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JimmytheT on 04 March 2009
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Ail said:
sethnintendo said:
@Lafiel, you are right we can criticize 3rd parties all we want because in all reality almost all 3rd parties are suffering. They made their decisions and their decisions suck. Pretty much all of them are losing money except a few and they aren't banking anywhere Nintendo is. So in all actuality, 3rd parties only wish they could make the games Nintendo makes.

 

Actually if things keep going the way they currently are I woudn't be surprised if within a 2-5 years time frame Activision-Blizzard didn't became a third party that could compete with the like of Nintendo.

ATVI is flushed with cash ( 3 billion $ on the balance sheet, no debts and they even have a 1 billion $ stock buy back program going on ) and have huge positive cash flow( and no matter the success of next year CoD and GH, the cash flow will stay hugely positive thanks to Wow) and it would not be surprising if they picked up some of the better development studios of those publishers that are currently suffering.( If TakeTwo ever dies personally I think Rockstar would be a much better match for ATVI than for EA like it was tried..).

Heck Blizzard has a 11 million captive audience that will consider seriously buying the next Blizzard product and is aware on a regular basis of every ongoing development at Blizzard.( and like it or not, is globally happy with what Blizzard is delivering..)

And Blizzard (or ATVI with GH) doesn't need lessons from anyone on how to attract casual gamers and retain them..

 

I commend Blizzard for being disrupters in their own right with WOW.  However I fail to see where your financial numbers are coming from; which balance sheet and income statement are you looking at?

Balance sheet - http://finance.aol.com/financials/activision-blizzard-inc/atvi/nas/balance-sheet -  Their cash position is 1.25 billion not the 3 billion you seem to be purporting.  I can tell you right now, that cash likely will hold firm given the economy, and the fact that they will need that liquidity to protect their balance sheet going forward.

The do not have long-term debt, however to say they have no liabilities at all is ludicrous as they clearly have over $621 million in current liabilites.  This is further evidence that to maintain good liquidity, that 1.25 billion in cash is not going anywhere, as I am sure they want to maintain a good quick ratio (Cash + A/R :  current liabilities).

According to their income results for their fiscal year 2008, they posted a net loss of $107 million.  Edit: It should also be noted that their net change in cash position is -5.73 million. (http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:ATVI)

Either you are reading their old financials, or you have no idea how to read a financial statement properly.