News

Glu sees FY2010 revenue fall 19% to $64.3 million, but cash flow doubled

Smartphone and freemium sales rise strongly

Glu sees FY2010 revenue fall 19% to $64.3 million, but cash flow doubled
Publisher Glu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU) has announced its full year financials for the 12 months ending 31 December 2010.

Total revenue was $64.3 million, down 19 percent compared to sales of $79.3 million in 2009.  

Its operating loss was $11.4 million, compared to a loss of $14.9 million for 2009.

The company ended the year with current assets of $28.5 million, compared to $35.8 million 12 months ago.

The good news however was cash flow from operations was $2.2 million for the 12 month period, up from $1.1 million in 2009.

And the company's shares remain the highest they've been since late 2008. 

Freemium rising

As it continues its transition, Glu was also able to point to some highlights from its new freemium strategy.

It had 18 million game installs between October and December as it rolled out games such as Gun Bros. It also had 12.1 million monthly active users across all its titles in December.

Around 20 percent of Glu's revenue now comes from smartphone game sales. In Q4, this was up 29 percent compared to the previous three months to $3.1 million.

Q4 as FY2010

Looking more specifically at the company's fourth quarter, revenue was $15.6 million, down 18 percent year-on-year.

The operating loss was $5.1 million, compared to a $6.7 million loss for Q4 2009.

All these figures are provided under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

According to non-GAAP accounting, which excludes foreign currency exchange gains and losses primarily related to the revaluation of assets and liabilities - and in Glu's case its payments to the shareholders of Chinese publisher MIG which it acquired, Glu's total revenue for 2010 was $64.3 million, while its operating loss was $1.7 million.

Building a bridge

"We are pleased with our solid fourth quarter results, reflecting the progress we are making with our freemium, social mobile games strategy," stated Niccolo de Masi, CEO's Glu.

"We reported strong growth across many of our key operating metrics, as non-GAAP smartphone revenues increased 38 percent sequentially to $3.4 million, non-GAAP freemium revenue, (or revenue from micro-transactions, in-game advertising and offers), grew by 128 percent to $1.3 million, and monthly active users were up 137 percent to 12.1 million.

"Looking forward, we believe that the combination of scale, global cross-platform reach, industry-leading expertise and improved capital structure will enable us to consolidate on our momentum. We anticipate launching approximately 20 to 25 new social, persistent titles this year on our Glu Games Network distribution platform and community."

In Q1 2011, Glu expects to receive GAAP revenue of between $13.7 million and $14.2 million, and GAAP smartphone revenue is expected to be between $3.8 million and $4.2 million.

Twelve months ago, its Q1 sales were $17.3 million.

[source: Glu]
Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.