Majesco's Yearly, Quarterly Revenues, Losses Increase

Publisher Majesco (Cooking Mama) moved to an operating loss in both fiscal year 2009 and its fourth fiscal quarter, despite considerable increases in net revenue for both periods. Revenue in the quarter ending October 31, 2009 rose 32.8 percent from $18.0 million to $23.9 million. In that period, the company posted an operating loss of $5.5 million, compared to profits of $400,000 in the same period a year prior. For the fiscal year that ended October 31, 2009, Majesco's revenue increased a 47.8 percent to $94.5 million, while swinging to an operating loss of $6.6 million as compared to its profits of $2.8 million in the 2008 fiscal year. "In 2009 we delivered a strong top line performance, exceeding our revenue guidance, despite a challenging economic environment and a difficult period for our industry overall," CEO Jesse Sutton said in a statement released alongside the financial results. Despite "maintained costs and reduced marketing expenditures," as well as and strong performance by the Cooking Mama and Jillian Michaels franchises, Sutton said the company had an "inability to translate this strong growth to the bottom line" thanks in part to "a soft retail performance from new IP titles in the fourth quarter," such as Our House: Party. Majesco says that it has "evaluated its 2010 portfolio and canceled certain titles" in the wake of the holiday season, and has reduced its headcount by 17 percent to further control costs. However, it notes that the Gardening Mama spinoff was "very successful", and so the company is "presently working on two additional extensions" of the Cooking Mama franchise for 2010. "In 2010 we must translate our revenue into profitability and this is the key focus for our management team," Sutton said. "We are well capitalized and, in that regard, in better financial position than we've been in recent years. We are looking to focus our resources on our best opportunities, publishing fewer, but stronger titles than we initially planned and driving additional efficiencies across our operations by reducing our cost structure."