EIDOS ISSUES PROFIT
WARNING OVER DELAY
Copyright 2003 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ June 27th 2003 ]
Shares
in video game publisher Eidos have fallen as much
as 10 percent after the company said shipment
delays in Europe for its new Tomb Raider game
would hurt 2003 pre-tax profits. Eidos needed
to ship "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of
Darkness" by June 30, the final day of its current
financial year, in order to book the sales for
the period. It made the deadline in the United
States but missed it in Europe. "While some units
may ship within the current financial year, up
to one million units will ship in July, the first
month of the next financial year," the company
said in a statement. "This has led the Board to
significantly reduce its expectations for profit
before tax for the financial year ending 30th
June 2003," the statement read. The company did
not disclose its pre-tax projection for 2003.
By 0855
GMT, Eidos traded down five percent at 132 pence.
Shares in Britain's largest games publisher have
dropped 23 percent in the past month. Analysts
and retailers said they grew increasingly concerned
about Eidos as it became clear the publisher would
not hit its shipment target for Europe over the
past two weeks. The company is expected to ship
between 1.5 million and 2.5 million units globally.
The company on Friday did not say when it expected
the game to ship, but the UK Web site of Amazon.com
offered a July 4 shipment date.
The company
has delayed the launch in November to February
and then to this month. It launched Tomb Raider
in the United States on June 20. Eidos said the
European delay was due to last-minute checks by
Sony Corp. . The game is due for release on Sony's
PlayStation 2 and for the PC. The company said
the delay is not expected to impact Tomb Raider
sales, though the company will now be forced to
book a percentage of sales in its 2004 financial
year.
Analysts
had been estimating Eidos would record sales of
between 170 million pounds and 180 million pounds
and earnings per share of eight pence. Eidos has
budgeted to spend two million pounds in Britain
and six million euros in Continental Europe to
promote the upcoming release. The company should
get a lift next month when the movie "Lara Croft
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life", a Paramount
production starring Angelina Jolie, makes its
debut in the United States, analysts said.
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