SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 9, 2011 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced financial results for the calendar year and quarter ending December 31, 2010. Activision Blizzard reports results on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. A reconciliation of the company’s GAAP and non-GAAP results can be found in the attached tables.
For calendar year 2010, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues increased to $4.45 billion, as compared with $4.28 billion for 2009. On a non-GAAP basis, the company’s net revenues were $4.80 billion, as compared with $4.78 billion for 2009. Revenues from digital channels for the calendar year were more than $1.5 billion, an increase of more than 20% year over year.
For calendar year 2010, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP earnings per diluted share increased to $0.33, as compared with $0.09 per diluted share for 2009. The 2010 results include a $0.16 per share non-cash reduction in the valuation of intangible assets reflecting weaker retail sales in the casual and music genres, while the 2009 results included a similar non-cash charge of $0.19 per share. On a non-GAAP basis, the company’s earnings per diluted share grew 14.5% to $0.79, as compared with $0.69 per diluted share for 2009.
For the quarter ended December 31, 2010, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues were $1.43 billion as compared with fourth-quarter 2009 net revenues of $1.56 billion. On a non-GAAP basis, the company’s net revenues for the quarter were $2.55 billion, as compared with fourth-quarter 2009 non-GAAP net revenues of $2.50 billion. Revenues from digital channels for the quarter were more than $470 million, an increase of 40% year over year.
For the quarter ended December 31, 2010, Activision Blizzard had a GAAP loss per share of $0.20, inclusive of the $0.16 per share non-cash charge mentioned above. On a non-GAAP basis, the company’s earnings per diluted share grew to $0.53. For the comparable quarter in 2009, the company had a GAAP loss per share of $0.23, inclusive of the $0.19 per share non-cash charge mentioned above, and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.49.
Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, stated, “Because of focus and disciplined execution, 2010 was another extraordinary year for Activision Blizzard. We made some of the best games we have ever made in over 30 years of being in the interactive entertainment business. We benefited from new content releases for two of the world’s most successful online entertainment franchises: Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty®: Black Ops and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™, a new installment in the world’s largest subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game. During the year, we grew our net revenues, delivered record earnings, achieved record GAAP and non-GAAP operating margins of 11% and 29%, respectively, and generated $1.4 billion in operating cash flow.”
Kotick added, “Activision Blizzard’s key franchises have larger audience bases than ever before and we continue to see significantly enhanced user activity and engagement for our expanding online communities. Our revenues from digital channels, which now account for over 30% of our overall revenues, were driven by increased sales of Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty map packs and value-added services for Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. Blizzard significantly evolved its direct digital distribution capabilities with the launch of its new Battle.net® service and saw players embrace its service offerings in record numbers. Notably, since Call of Duty: Black Ops was launched in November players have spent an average of 52 minutes per day playing online, roughly equivalent to the 55 minutes that the average user spends each day on Facebook.(1) As of February 2, 2011, more than 27 million gamers have played Call of Duty games online, logging more than 2 billion hours, or the equivalent of more than 229,000 years of gameplay.(2)”
Kotick concluded, “Online gaming continues to broaden its appeal. Our shareholders continue to be well positioned to benefit from these trends and the focus of our incredibly talented employees around the world continues to allow us to lead our industry. We expect to continue to drive long-term growth, increase our return on invested capital and generate strong cash flow as we have over the last few years. Our strong balance sheet affords us the financial flexibility to invest in games that few companies have the ability to create and allows us to provide our shareholders with value through dividends and share repurchases.”
Business Highlights
Activision Blizzard was the #1 publisher overall in North America and Europe for the calendar year.(3)
Activision Blizzard was the #1 publisher in North America on the Xbox® 360, PlayStation® 3 and PC collectively for the calendar year.(4)
Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which was launched on December 7, 2010, sold through more than 3.3 million copies worldwide during its first 24 hours of release, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. It continued to sell through more than 4.7 million copies in its first month.(5)
As of December 31, 2010, more than 12 million gamers worldwide are subscribed to play Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft.(6)
For the December quarter, in North America and Europe, Call of Duty: Black Ops was the #1 best-selling console title in dollars ever during a single quarter and the Call of Duty franchise was the #1 franchise overall.(3)
In November 2010, Call of Duty: Black Ops became the first video game ever to surpass $650 million in retail sales in its first five days of release.(2) To date, the game has achieved more than $1 billion in retail sales worldwide.(3)
As of January 31, 2011, total unique gamers playing Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty: Black Ops increased by more than 49% over the number of total unique gamers that played Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® for the first three months after each game’s release.(7)
On February 1, 2011, Activision Publishing released Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike, the first add-on pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, on Xbox LIVE®. The map pack set new Xbox LIVE records with more than 1.4 million downloads in the first 24 hours, an increase of more than 25% over last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package.(7) The map pack also will be available on the PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system on March 3, 2011 and on the PC later in the quarter.
Activision Blizzard will continue to invest its capital and resources in the significant opportunities afforded by online gaming worldwide and will reduce its exposure to low-margin and low-potential businesses. In 2011, the company will allocate the majority of its resources and focus toward opportunities which we expect will afford us the greatest competitive advantages and the greatest potential for best-in-class quality, high-margin digital growth, and long-term success. These opportunities include Blizzard Entertainment’s games currently in development, robust investment in forthcoming Call of Duty titles, the development of a best-in-class digital community surrounding the Call of Duty franchise, a new property from Bungie and an innovative new universe with broad appeal that will be revealed at Toy Fair later this week and will bring the world of toys, video games and the Internet together in an unprecedented way. These investments should better position Activision Blizzard for long-term growth and enable it to continue expanding its position as the largest digital publisher.
At the same time, due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011. The company also will stop development on True Crime: Hong Kong™. These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world’s best interactive entertainment experiences.
For calendar year 2011, Activision Blizzard expects GAAP net revenues to be $3.95 billion and GAAP earnings per diluted share to be $0.56. On a non-GAAP basis, the company expects net revenues of $3.9 billion and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share to be $0.70 for the calendar year. Since Blizzard Entertainment has not confirmed a launch date for its next global release, the company’s calendar year outlook at this time does not yet include a new game from Blizzard in 2011.
For the first quarter of 2011, Activision Blizzard expects GAAP net revenues of $1.28 billion, and GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.28. The company’s first quarter GAAP earnings per diluted share outlook includes the impact of between $0.02 - $0.03 of expenses related to the restructuring. On a non-GAAP basis, the company expects net revenues of $640 million and $0.07 earnings per diluted share for the first quarter.
Activision Blizzard’s financial outlook is subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including declines in demand for its products, competition, the effectiveness of the company’s restructuring efforts, fluctuations in foreign exchange and tax rates, and counterparty risks relating to customers, licensees, licensors and manufacturers.
The company’s outlook is also based on assumptions about sell-through rates for its products, and the launch timing, success and pricing of its new slate of products. Current macroeconomic conditions increase those risks and uncertainties. As a result of these and other factors, actual results may deviate materially from the outlook presented above.
Board Authorizes Stock Repurchase Program and Declares Cash Dividend
Activision Blizzard today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a new stock repurchase program under which the company can repurchase up to $1.5 billion of the company’s outstanding common stock. This program replaces the company’s $1 billion stock repurchase plan program authorized in February 2010, which expired on December 31, 2010. As of December 31, 2010, Activision Blizzard had purchased an aggregate of 86 million shares of its common stock for approximately $966 million under the 2010 program.
The Board of Directors also declared a cash dividend of $0.165 per common share payable on May 11, 2011 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 16, 2011. This is the company’s second-ever cash dividend and it represents a 10% increase over its first-ever dividend that was issued in 2010.[/spoiler]
