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Glu Mobile’s return to profitability dampened by share price drop

Crowdstar powers sales as Design Home and Covet Fashion lead the way

Glu Mobile’s return to profitability dampened by share price drop

Mobile publisher Glu Mobile made a long-awaited return to profitability in Q1 2019 after reporting $700k in net income.

That was up significantly from the year prior when it reported net losses of $7.2 million.

Revenue was also up year-on-year from $81.4m to $95.9m for the three months ending March 31st 2019. Q1 bookings meanwhile increased seven per cent to $92.6 million.

Growth games

Key titles for the quarter included flagship game Design Home, which generated $42.2 million in bookings for the quarter, up 23 per cent year-on-year.

Covet Fashion meanwhile made up $16.8 million, up 38 per cent, highlighting just how important Crowdstar’s success has been to Glu since its acquisition in 2016.

Lifetime bookings for Design Home to date have hit $301.6m, while Covet Fashion has generated $227.4m.

The Tap Sports Baseball franchise has also performed increasingly well for Glu, bringing in lifetime bookings to date of $184.5 million. Tap Sports Baseball 2018 generated $77.2 million, beating 2017’s $51.4m bookings.

Overall, bookings for the TSB franchise increased by 49 per cent year-on-year to $13.4 million in Q1 2019.

You can see how Glu’s portfolio compares in the chart below.

Looking forward, Glu hopes to release new titles WWE Universe in May, Diner Dash Adventures in July and Disney Sorcerer’s Arena in August. Deer Hunter Next meanwhile is currently slated for a 2020 release, with Glu also working on two additional original IP games for next year.

Guidance for Q2 2019 forecasts bookings of between $100m and $102m, while full-year bookings guidance has been raised to between $445m to $455m.

Despite this, investors were underwhelmed by the financials, leading to a drop in share price from $11.22 on May 6th to $8.85 as of May 13th. It's been reported that investors were disappointed that Glu only broke even on a per-share basis.

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Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.