February 5th, 2009 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »
THQ has released their financial data which, as expected, was not that positive. The company needs, and will do more then just slim down their wireless unit in order to be healthy again.
Over the past period, THQ lost $ 191.8 million. Revenues where down 30% compared to a year ago. The wireless unit generated $ 5.9 million this quarter. Though it's a 12% increase year-on-year, it's clearly not enough for the company as it's not even 2% of the total revenue.
As we reported last week, the company has slimmed down it's wireless unit to a level where it's not much more then the Universomo Studio (which it acquired not too long ago). The San Diego, UK and German offices where closed. And Universomo will focus mainly on the (slowly saturating) iPhone market for now.
It's not only wireless where THQ is cutting back though. THQ will ditch 24% of their staff in total (600 heads). These steps would safe the company about 220 million dollar. THQ will also limit the number of titles they bring to the market. The development resources remaining will get more time to increase the quality of the games. The company will also lean stronger on casual titles.
