Zynga Swings to a Profit
04 November 2015 - 9:10AM
Dow Jones News
Zynga Inc. swung to a profit in its third quarter and posted an
11% increase in revenue, but the game developer offered a soft
outlook for the holiday quarter.
Zynga also unveiled a $200 million share-buyback program and
announced that Chief Financial Officer David Lee has resigned and
will leave the company in December.
Accounting Chief Michelle Quejado will take Mr. Lee's place in
the interim while the company conducts a search for a permanent
replacement.
For the period ended Sept. 30, Zynga swung to a profit of $3.05
million in the period ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $57.1
million a year earlier. Profit was helped by a 13% reduction in
expenses from the prior year.
Per-share earnings were flat, while analysts had forecast a loss
of a penny a share, according to Thomson Reuters.
Zynga is still trying to find the kind of success with mobile
apps that it once had on PCs, particularly in games played through
Facebook. It continues to struggle with a decline in customers.
In the third quarter, the number of people playing its games
daily fell 21% to about 19 million from a year ago, while monthly
active users tumbled 27% to about 75 million.
Revenue in the quarter rose 11% to $195.7 million. Zynga said it
saw strength in its slot-machine, poker and Words With Friends
games.
Bookings, a measure of revenue closely watched by analysts, were
essentially flat at $176 million, but topped the company's guidance
for $155 million to $170 million in bookings.
For the fourth quarter, Zynga forecast bookings of $165 million
to $180 million, below the $191.8 million analysts had forecast.
Zynga said it expects an adjusted per-share loss of a penny to flat
earnings. Analysts forecast flat earnings.
Zynga said it would delay the release of two games that had been
scheduled for the quarter. The games, Dawn of Titans and CSR2, will
now be released in 2016.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 03, 2015 16:55 ET (21:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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