Bloomberg

Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), the largest video-game publisher, posted fourth-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates on sales of “Call of Duty.” The company’s forecast for this quarter fell short of projections.

Net income totaled $99 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with a loss of $233 million, or 20 cents, a year earlier, Santa Monica, California-based Activision said today in a statement. Revenue fell 1.4 percent to $1.41 billion.

Profit excluding some items totaled 62 cents a share, topping the 56-cent average of 19 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Adjusted sales, excluding changes in deferred revenue, were $2.41 billion, beating estimates of $2.2 billion.

This quarter, Activision sees profit of 3 cents a share, excluding items, below the 15-cent average of eight analysts’ estimates. Adjusted revenue will be $525 million, less than estimates of $787.6 million. The company has no major packaged good titles set for release before March, Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer, said in an interview. The first-quarter forecast also doesn’t incorporate a new Blizzard release.

Activision rose 0.9 percent to $12.66 at the close in New York and has gained 2.8 percent this year.

Through December, Activision sold 21.5 million units of its “Call of Duty” shooter franchise, the company said in an e- mail, citing data from NPD Group, Charttrack and GfK.

Activision stabilized subscriber defections from the Blizzard unit’s “World of Warcraft” online multiplayer games, after losing almost 1 million the previous quarter. The number of paying subscribers fell to 10.2 million from 10.3 million in October.

New Online Titles

The online multiplayer unit plans to release two new titles this year, Kotick said. He declined to provide the dates.

“They are hard at work at making sure they’re going to deliver things that are going to satisfy their audience,” Kotick said.

Activision hasn’t followed other traditional game companies in developing games for social platforms such as Facebook Inc.

The company is trying to boost sales with digital downloads of new game levels and an online subscription service for its core “Call of Duty” franchise. As of Jan. 31, it had 1.5 million people paying $49.99 annually for strategy guides and other content.

“You’re seeing shifts in platforms, shifts in places people are consuming interactive entertainment and stratification to very high-quality experiences,” Kotick said.

Digital revenue accounted for more than 34 percent of total sales for the year, the company said in the statement.

For all of 2012, Activision forecasts profit of 94 cents a share excluding items, on adjusted sales of $4.5 billion. Analysts project 97 cents on revenue of $4.55 billion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-09/activision-fourth-quarter-profit-tops-estimates-while-forecast-falls-short.html?cmpid=yhoo

Activision Blizzard Announces Record Fourth Quarter and Calendar Year 2011 Earnings

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

- CY 2011 EPS Grows by More than 17% Establishing New Company Record
- Company Achieves Record GAAP and Non-GAAP Operating Margins of 28% and 30%
- Company Generates Nearly $1 Billion in Operating Cash Flow
- Company Announces new $1 Billion Stock Repurchase Program
- Company Announces 9% Increase in Cash Dividend to $0.18 per Common Share
- Company Expects 2012 GAAP EPS of $0.63 and Non-GAAP EPS of $0.94
BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS
- #1 Third-Party Interactive Entertainment Digital Publisher in U.S. and Europe in 2011
- Digital Revenues of $1.6 Billion Accounted for More than 34% of Total Revenues in 2011
- Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 was #1 Best-Selling Game for 2011
- Skylanders Spyro's Adventure™ was #1 Kids Video Game for 2011 with 20+ Million Toys Sold
- Call of Duty Elite Has 7+ Million Registered Users Including 1.5+ Million Annual Premium Members as of 1/31/12
- Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft® Remains #1 Subscription-based MMORPG with Approximately 10.2 Million Subscribers as of 12/31/11

http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=647732

There is something really wrong with the industry when you have that much revenue and so little net income....

Very good result, over 1 billion of cash flow generated.

The only thing I don't get is why they keep going with those huge stock repurchase programs that in the end have little effect on the stock price.....

They are making a killing but you have to delve in the numbers to understand that....

With the game they play with defered revenue the only way to look at how they do is on a yearly basis.

In 2011 they had 4.7 billion$ net revenue and 1.085 billion$ net income............( not sure how you can call that net income low...)

I only read the OP so for the quarter with the mega blockbuster COD 99 million net income from 1.41 billion revenue is low..

That is because like for the last 3 years they defered most of CoD revenue for the next quarters. It's not like it's news, every gaming company does that shit........

How about they defer their income because they know all the mindless drones with purchase all their DLC.  I know it isn't the case but I had to take a cheap shot.