30 May
Article by Dario Ruff
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) is freezing out the competition, one hot title at a time.
As seventh generation consoles settle into their mature phase, the software developer is looking to extend its lead in the third-party publishing space. Activision Blizzard is simply the better trade in the video game software space, Electronic Arts (ERTS) and THQ (THQI) beware.
Over last winter’s holiday season, Activision boasted 3 of the 5 best selling games (Guitar Hero World Tour, Call of Duty 4, and World of Warcraft). Currently, Guitar Hero is outselling the similarly themed Rock Band from MTV Games by a 4 to 1 margin with sales climbing 84% year-over-year.
For the first quarter ending March 31st, 2009, Activision computed a revenues of 1 million, helping it earn a rock-solid 9 million (.14 per share). Ex-items, the company earnings 1 million, or .08 per share. Last quarter, Activision swung to a million loss, or .05 per share, from a year-earlier profit of million, or .15 a share. On May 14th, Activision raised their 2009 revenues guidance from .2 billion to .3 billion. GAAP earnings are expected to be .24 per share, accounting for 0 million in currency translation losses.
With multiple hot titles impending this summer including Diablo III, Starcraft 2, and its latest Transformers game, Activision has a potent lineup capable of driving earnings growth. This June, Activision’s entirely owned subsidiary, Radical Entertainment, releases its pioneering sandbox action game, Prototype.
Sentiment has clearly picked up for Activision after its disappointing fourth quarter results. Year-to-date, ATVI is up 32.5% yet is still attractive from a valuation standpoint trading near its 52-week low of .14 set on January 6. ATVI’s move above in May was a bullish indicator.
Activision sports about billion in cash reserves and no debt load, fueling speculation that the software publisher is armed and ready to be an active player in the M&A game. The most obvious target remains Take-Two Interactive (TTWO). But after Take-Two’s rebuttal of Electronic Arts in February of 2008, potential suitors have been skittish to approach the Grand Theft Auto publisher. As Activision sorts out its options – including recent share buybacks to the tune of 0 million as of early May – investors can be comforted by their healthy cash position.
While currency translations could dent cyclically-sensitive earnings going forward, improving consumer sentiment is suggesting a bottom amid consumer retrenchment. Even with the dramatic pullback in valuations for the gaming industry, sales of hardware, software, and accessories climbed over .3 billion last year, a 19% increase over 2007. While rising unemployment and consumer deleveraging concerns remain, Activision Blizzard is stocking up with a storm of hot titles that gamers will be clamoring for.
About the Author
Dario Ruff Sr. is a Search Marketing Specialist for BetterTrades. BetterTrades offers stock market seminars educating new traders how to make a profit from stocks and options

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3 Responses for "A Blizzard of Activision Optimism BetterTrades"
Retro greatness!! Don’t pass this by!,
First off,I have to say that I grew up in the 80s and I used to play atari all the time,so my review may be a bit biased.For me, this game had so many memories in it that it was a blast!One of the main reasons I got this anthology was because it included the great game Seaquest in it.I used to play that game for hours on end back in the day!
Some other great games included on it are,MegaMania,Frostbite, SpiderFighter,LaserBlaster,KeystoneKapers,RoboTank,and of course Pitfall.The 80s soundtrack put in the game made it even better;I mean playing these classics while listening to “Safety Dance”,
“Tainted Love” or “Were Not Gonna Take It” is priceless in my opinion.If any of these songs do get on your nerves though( you can only listen to Mexican Radio so many times!) you are given the option to turn the music off.I just wish they would have given the option to only play certain songs while leaving other ones out..Oh well.
The only minor complaint I have for this title,is that some of the games included were really,REALLY bad!I mean I remember hating these games when I used to own them as cartridges for the atari 2600.The really bad games include,Dragster(terrible!), Dolphin,TomCat and the “bonus” games Kabobber and Thwoker. However there are enough fun games in here to justify buying it esp. since you can buy this new for pretty cheap. That’s a great deal
for a gamer’s trip down memory lane.
In conclusion,any gamer in his/her twentites would love this title.As for the younger generation,they probabaly couldn’t appreciate this one;but everyone else sit back and have some fun!
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|A great collection, better than anything Namco or Midway did,
For the past few years, Midway and Namco have been rereleasing old games in their collections. They would throw 6 to 8 early 80′s games on a cd with nothing extra and charge an insane amount of money. Then along came Activision. Activision obviously learned from Midway and Namco’s mistakes. Instead of 6 to 8, you get 45 Atari 2600 games. Want extra features? Ok, how about TV comercials from the 80s and those patches you could earn for their games. But they did not stop there. They added a truely impressive 80′s soundtrack to keep you going. There are also added ways of playing the game. For example, one method overlays clouds over the game. Another has a large rotating cube with the game on each side. These extra ways of playing the game are interesting, but you will mostly just play the games the way they were. Overall, this is what a collection should be like. If you want to relive the classics or are interested in where the video game industry first got its start, you should check this out.
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|Ahhhh… Reliving my early 80′s Atari childhood. Sweet.
These are the classic games I played as a kid. Although primitive, they were *very* addictive and kept you saying, “Just one more game!”
And what a bargain! … Well worth it. Although about half the games are not really worth playing today, there are several must-have classics:
Pitfall, Pitfall 2 (like 2D Metroid in a jungle), H.E.R.O., Kaboom, Cosmic Ark, Demon Attack.
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