Activision Blizzard Reports December Quarter and Calendar Year 2010 Financial Results

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.

Company Outlook

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.

Conference Call

Today at 4:30 p.m. EST, Activision Blizzard’s management will host a conference call and Webcast to discuss the company’s results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2010 and management’s outlook for 2011. The company welcomes all members of the financial and media communities and other interested parties to visit the “Investor Relations” area of www.activisionblizzard.com to listen to the conference call and view a brief supporting slide presentation via live Webcast or to listen to the call live by dialing into 877-397-0292 in the U.S. with passcode 8890647.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Activision Blizzard provides net revenues, net income (loss), earnings (loss) per share and operating margin data and guidance both including (in accordance with GAAP) and excluding (non-GAAP) the following items: the impact of the change in deferred net revenues and related cost of sales with respect to certain of the company’s online-enabled games; expenses related to share-based payments; Activision Blizzard’s non-core exit operations (which are the operating results of products and operations of the historical Vivendi Games, Inc. businesses that the company has exited or substantially wound down); costs related to the business combination between Activision, Inc. and Vivendi Games, Inc. (including transaction costs, integration costs, and restructuring activities); expenses related to the restructuring of our Activision Publishing operations; the amortization of intangibles and impairment of intangible assets; and the associated tax benefits.

Management believes that the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures provides investors with additional useful information to measure Activision Blizzard’s financial and operating performance because they facilitate comparison of operating performance between periods and help investors to better understand the operating results of Activision Blizzard.

Internally, management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing the company's operating results, as well as in planning and forecasting.

Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or superior to, financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP.  Activision Blizzard recognizes that there are limitations associated with the use of these non-GAAP financial measures.

Activision Blizzard’s non-GAAP financial measures are not based on a comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles, and the terms non-GAAP net revenues, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP earnings per share, and non-GAAP operating margin do not have a standardized meaning. Therefore, other companies may use the same or similarly named measures, but exclude different items, which may not provide investors a comparable view of Activision Blizzard's performance in relation to other companies.  

Management compensates for the limitations resulting from the exclusion of these items by considering the impact of the items separately and by considering Activision Blizzard’s GAAP, as well as non-GAAP results and outlook and, in this release, by presenting the most comparable GAAP measures directly ahead of non-GAAP measures, and by providing a reconciliation that indicates and describes the adjustments made.

About Activision Blizzard

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a worldwide online, PC, console, handheld and mobile game publisher with leading positions across the major categories of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry.

Activision Blizzard maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea and China.  More information about Activision Blizzard and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activisionblizzard.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements:  Information in this press release that involves Activision Blizzard’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements under the heading “Company Outlook,” are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties.  Activision Blizzard generally uses words such as “outlook,” “will,”  “could,” "should," “would,” “might,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “intends,” "anticipates," "estimate," “future," "plan," "positioned," "potential," "project," "remain," "scheduled," "set to," "subject to," "upcoming" and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements.  Factors that could cause Activision Blizzard’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales levels of Activision Blizzard’s titles, increasing concentration of titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of the current macroeconomic environment and market conditions within the video game industry, Activision Blizzard’s ability to predict consumer preferences, including interest in specific genres such as first-person action and massively multiplayer online games and preferences among competing hardware platforms, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, changing business models including digital and used games, competition including from used games and other forms of entertainment, possible declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, adoption rate and availability of new hardware (including peripherals) and related software, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, litigation risks and associated costs, the effectiveness of Activision Blizzard’s restructuring efforts, protection of proprietary rights, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, licensees, licensors, vendors, and third-party developers, including the ability to attract, retain and develop key personnel and developers that can create high quality "hit" titles, counterparty risks relating to customers, licensees, licensors and manufacturers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates and tax rates, and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities and potential challenges associated with geographic expansion, and the other  factors  identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K.   The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and Activision Blizzard assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.  Although these forward-looking statements are believed to be true when made, they may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

(1) According to Microsoft, Sony, Activision Blizzard internal estimates and digitalbuzzblog.com.

(2) According to Activision Blizzard internal estimates

(3) According to The NPD Group, Charttrack and Gfk

(4) According to The NPD Group

(5) According to internal company records from Blizzard Entertainment and reports from key distribution partners

(6) According to Blizzard Entertainment internal data

(7) According to Microsoft, Sony and Activision Blizzard internal estimates

(Tables to Follow)