Glu Mobile Sales Decline, But Losses Narrow

Mobile game publisher Glu Mobile (Super K.O. Boxing) reported on Thursday a decline in quarterly revenues, but the company was able to narrow its losses for the period. Glu generated $17.3 million in revenues for the quarter ended March 31, down from $20.8 million in the same quarter a year prior. Quarterly net losses were $3.7 million, an improvement over the $5.8 million loss a year ago. Net loss for the quarter also included $594,000 in restructuring charges. "We continue to make progress on expanding our smartphone studio capacity as well as focusing on our new social, persistent product strategy," said CEO Niccolo de Masi. That expansion into smartphone development will take time, however. "We anticipate the shift to fewer and larger titles to limit smartphone revenue growth over the next two quarters and expect increasing momentum from the fourth quarter of 2010 as our transition begins to gain traction," De Masi added. The company also has "several new franchises" that are slated to launch in the fourth quarter. Glu is additionally making management adjustments in order to bring more expertise on board during the smartphone transition. The publisher expects to make revenues between $13.6 million and $14.0 million for the quarter ended June 30. Net loss is expected to hit $4.7 million during the period. The iPhone plays a key part in Glu's smartphone transition. De Masi said in an earnings call that Glu's total monthly user base on iPhone averaged over 8 million unique users during the quarter. "We continue to drive ourselves aggressively at the learning curve here to enable us to capitalize upon this new ocean of opportunity," De Masi said. Glu's total iPhone downloads have surpassed 30 million, or 22 million excluding app updates, he added.