Earnings: Strong Sales, Cost-Cutting Get THQ Back In The Black

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Earnings: Strong Sales, Cost-Cutting Get THQ Back In The Black

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Finally—a bright side for THQ (NSDQ: THQI). After posting massive losses for the past four quarters, the game publisher is finally back in the black: net income came in at $6.4 million and an EPS of $0.09 for its fiscal Q1. (Analysts were expecting a loss of $0.08 per share).

That’s a vast difference from the previous year’s $27 million loss—but the stock still dropped by as much as 8 percent in after-hours trading because THQ predicted poorer performance for the current quarter (since it has no new games coming out).

Still, the swing to profit is a testament to the complete restructuring that THQ kicked off last year: seven studios were shut down or spun off, about 600 employees were let go, and the company regrouped itself into three business units—Core games, Casual games and a new Online division.

THQ slashed about $220 million off its books for its fiscal year 2010 (which started with this quarter). A strong debut of its UFC 2009 Undisputed fighting game, which was the best-selling title in the U.S. for the June quarter (per NPD), and its franchise shooter Red Faction: Guerrilla, contributed to the turnaround.