Take Two Interactive Burns Through 300 Million Cash -09/02/09 at 12:10 PM CDTby Perry Rod

It was just one year ago that Take Two (TTWO) Interactive Software Inc. announced that it had accumulated 339 million dollars in cash from the success of Grand Theft Auto 4.  They had no debt. Today, just twelve months later, they have managed to burn through almost all of that cash.  With a recent 5 million dollar cash settlement and 138 millio...

Xbox 360 Pricecut Welcomed By Interactive Entertainment: Activision, ... -08/24/09 at 8:36 AM CDTby Perry Rod

At the GamesCom conference last week, eyebrows were raised when Microsoft did not announce a pricecut of the 360 after Sony announced their PlayStation 3 console's drop to $299. Over the weekend, however, a Wal Mart (WMT) advertisement distributed by video game website Kotaku and also another regional chain advertisement appear to confirm the coming of a ...

Retail Investors Outperforming Professionals With Citigroup, Ford, an... -08/21/09 at 11:14 AM CDTby Peter York

In today's market, it's not the professionals who are celebrating as much as the retail investors.  Consider three stocks that seem to show up in retail portfolios everywhere: Citigroup Inc. (C), Ford Motor Company (F), and Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI).  Institutional ownership in these stocks are well under 50% which suggests a significant retail...

Sony PS3 Pricecut, Welcome News for Activision, Electronic Arts, Game... -08/18/09 at 12:57 PM CDTby Perry Rod

There is a universal sigh of relief in the interactive entertainment industry today as Sony has just announced at the end of their Gamescon 2009 presentation that the new PlayStation 3 Slim will now be $299 (299 euros, 29980 yen).  That will also be the new price for all PlayStation 3's for sale on the market starting tomorrow, August 19, 2009. Kotak...

Activision Executives Sell Millions of Shares While Company Buys Back... -08/17/09 at 10:41 AM CDTby Mahyar Hashemi

Activision Inc. (ATVI) upped their stock buyback program from 1 to 1.25 billion dollars worth of shares on August 5 as a part of their first quarter earnings report announcement.  At the same time, the company’s CEO Robert Kotick was still busy selling stock, including recent sales disclosed late in the day to the SEC on Friday, August 14.&nbsp...

Electronic Arts CFO Says EA No Longer Interested in Take Two Interactive -08/11/09 at 3:18 PM CDTby Perry Rod

In response to a question at the Pacific Crest Technology Leadership Forum in Vail, Colorado earlier today, Electronic Arts (ERTS) Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown offered EA's most definitive statement yet on a possible deal between Take Two (TTWO) Interactive Inc. and EA. "That's a deal whose timeframe has, you know, come and long gone. And so we're j...

Summer Meltdown For The Video Game Industry -07/30/09 at 8:18 AM CDTby Perry Rod

Sony and Nintendo reported disappointing numbers in Japan overnight. Nintendo Wii sales dropped 57% year over year from 5.17 million to 2.23 million units worldwide.  Sales of PlayStation 3 dropped 31% year over year from 1.6 million to 1.1 million units worldwide.  PS3 software sales were down 35% in that same period.  The PlayStation Port...

THQ Talks Up Darksiders and Red Faction 2, But Talk is Cheap For This... -07/28/09 at 7:15 PM CDTby Perry Rod

THQ announced today that they made .09 non-GAAP earnings from what looked to be a spectacular quarter, which included UFC Undisputed, Red Faction and considerable cost reductions.  Now they are talking about making only around 90 million in revenues in the second quarter and somewhere in the ballpark of -.50 earnings.  That'll make it around -.4...

No Regrets, No Responsibility: Strauss Zelnick, Take Two Interactive'... -07/20/09 at 11:03 AM CDTby Perry Rod

“I don’t engage in regrets,” he said in an interview with CNBC last month. It was a revealing statement by the chairman of Take Two Interactive, Inc. (TTWO). A humble man may have had some regrets, given the dramatic fall of the company’s stock.  But humility is almost certainly not a quality requirement for one who engages in...

THQ Inc. Sells Over 1 Million UFC Undisputed Copies In First Month -06/11/09 at 6:40 PM CDTby Mahyar Hashemi

According to research group NPD, UFC Undisputed moved just over a million copies in its first twelve days on the shelf in North America.  That may explain why THQ stock is up 64% since its release date.  Analysts were expecting much fewer first month sales.  Wedbush Morgan senior analyst Michael Pachter had predicted 400,000 copies to sell ...

THQ Inc. and Take Two Interactive - A Similar Value? -06/10/09 at 11:22 AM CDTby Perry Rod

According to recent trading, video game companies THQ Inc (THQI). and Take Two (TTWO) Interactive Software, Inc. have a nearly identical market capitalization value.  THQ stock has nearly tripled in the last three months on word of solid sales of their new games, UFC Undisputed and Red Faction Guerilla.  But do these companies really deserve sim...