Activision Blizzard’s financial results details

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii

Activision Blizzard’s first quarter 2012 financial report is in, and it isn’t too shabby. They have announced “better-than-expected” results.

The company’s net revenues were $1.17 billion. Last year, this figure was at $1.45 billion. Net revenues from digital channels have taken up 27% of Activision Blizzard’s total revenues for the quarter ending March 31, 2012.

Selected business highlights include:

As of March 31, 2012, the Call of Duty franchise had approximately 40 million monthly active users.(4)
Players have logged more than 1.6 billion hours of online gameplay of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 through March 31, 2012.(4)
As of April 30, 2012, more than 10 million gamers have registered for Call of Duty Elite, including more than two million premium annual memberships the company has sold for the online service.(4)
In North America and Europe, including accessory packs and figures, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure was the #3 best-selling game overall in dollars across all platforms for the first quarter of 2012 and the #1 selling kids’ title in dollars in the quarter.(2)
On April 5, 2012, Activision Publishing expanded the reach of the Skylanders franchise with the debut of Skylanders Cloud Patrol™, an entirely new gaming experience for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users.
For the first quarter, Activision Blizzard had two top-10 PC titles in North America and Europe with Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty®.(2)
On March 20, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment announced that they renewed their license with NetEase for the distribution of World of Warcraft in mainland China. The new license will continue for an additional three years following the expiration of the current license agreement.
On March 21, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment launched the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta test.
During the first quarter, Activision Blizzard purchased an aggregate of 22 million shares of its common stock for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $261 million.
Activision Blizzard will pay a cash dividend of $0.18 per common share on May 16, 2012 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 21, 2012. This represents a 9% increase over the dividend that was paid in 2011.
On March 5, 2012, Activision Blizzard, Inc. announced that Microsoft veteran Dennis Durkin has been named Chief Financial Officer of the company. Durkin assumes the position from Thomas Tippl, who had been serving in the Chief Financial Officer position on an interim basis since his promotion to Chief Operating Officer in 2010.

Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer, Activision Blizzard, said:

Our better-than-expected first-quarter performance was driven by global consumer demand for Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3, and Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures™, as well as Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft® which remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world. Through March 31, players have logged more than 1.6 billion hours of online gameplay of Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,(4) and for the quarter in North America and Europe, including the accessory packs and figures, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventures was the #3 best-selling game overall in dollars across all platforms.(2) Based on our internal estimates, we believe that Skylander’s toys sales in the first quarter exceeded those of Star Wars, the #1 action figure line.(3) Additionally, Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty Elite service continues to grow and currently has more than 10 million registered users including more than two million annual premium members, an increase of approximately 33% from January 31, 2012.”(4)
“On May 15 Blizzard Entertainment will release the highly anticipated Diablo® III and we are proud to report that pre-orders for the game worldwide have set a new record for Blizzard.(1) For the remainder of 2012 and beyond, our product pipeline includes some of the most innovative games we have ever developed for our established franchises, including Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria™, StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm™ and all new MMORPG game, as well as Activision Publishing’s Skylander’s Giants™, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and a new universe from Bungie. We also continue to expand our service platforms, Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net® and Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty Elite, grow our global footprint into new markets and strengthen our development resources for the future. Our high-quality brands, industry leading operational capabilities and solid balance sheet should enable us to continue to take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by the expanding interactive entertainment market and deliver continued superior returns to our shareholders.”

Source: Activision Blizzard investors PR