Radica Narrows Losses In Second Quarter

Representatives from Hong Kong-headquartered game peripheral and 'TV game' maker Radica Games (Tetris, Sega Genesis 'TV games'), in the process of being acquired by Mattel, have announced overall losses of $552,000 for the three months comprising its second quarter results. The results are an improvement from the previous year, in which the company reported a deficit of $3.4 million. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $600,000 in the quarter, compared to $2.6 million a year earlier. Revenue for the company also fell though, by 32 percent to $21 million, offset by a fall in operating expenses of 33 percent to $8.9 million. The losses were blamed on continued poor sales of the company’s previously popular 'TV game' line (including a Tetris TV game and multiple Sega Genesis-licensed products, plus football and baseball titles), as well as the decision by an unnamed major customer to increase the percentage of their orders from domestic supply and to decrease the percentage from import supply in 2006, thus affecting the timing of revenue income. The company, which agreed to be acquired by toy manufacturer Mattel in July for around $230 million, has claimed that it is on track to meet full year expectations. Pat Feely, Radica's CEO said, "While our second quarter results were below 2005 given changes in customer order patterns, we are on track for the full year with our expectations. We continue to believe this will be a solid year as indicated by our strong year to date point of sale retail movement and solid fall listings as well as retail promotional support for fall." "We look forward to our merger with Mattel and the many benefits that the synergy of our respective strengths can bring to our business. The process leading to a closing is continuing on schedule and we hope will be concluded in the fourth quarter. In the meantime it is business as usual at Radica," he added.