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Glu reports Q3 revenues of $23.9 million

But net losses balloon to $56.8 million

Glu reports Q3 revenues of $23.9 million
By , Contributing Editor

Glu Mobile has reported revenues of $23.9 million for the third quarter of 2008 – up 44% year-on-year, although flat sequentially (its Q2 revenues were $23.7 million).However, the company posted a net loss of $56.8 million for the quarter, thanks mainly to a $46.6 million goodwill impairment charge.President and CEO Greg Ballard said the current economic climate hampered Glu's performance during the quarter.

"Despite an active release schedule and solid performances in Latin America and parts of Europe, economic turmoil in the US and other parts of the world affected our quarterly results," said Ballard.Other stats: the publisher's ten top titles accounted for around 28 per cent of its revenues in Q3, down from 32 per cent in Q2.Ballard hailed advanced mobile platforms like iPhone, Android and N-Gage as the key to Glu's growth in 2009. So far, the company has been relatively cautious with releases on iPhone and N-Gage, although it was one of the first publishers to launch a game on Android Market.However, ramping up its release schedule on high-end handsets will require investment – something that may conflict with senior VP and CFO Eric Ludwig's admission that Glu is "focused on tightly managing expenses" in the current economic climate.Although Ludwig also said Glu will continue to "make the strategic investments that we believe are necessary", the publisher's dilemma is that in the current market conditions, it's caught between reining in costs and investing more to catch up with rivals, particularly on iPhone.Glu also outlined its expectations for the fourth quarter of this year, estimating that GAAP revenue will be between $21 million and $22 million, with a net loss of between $6.7 million and $7.4 million.Meanwhile, for 2008 as a whole, Glu expects to post revenues of between $89.2 million and $90.2 million, with a net loss of between $76.2 million and $76.9 million.Glu is the third of the Big Three mobile game publishers to report its Q3 financials. EA Mobile reported $47 million of revenues last week, while Gameloft reported €26.2 million  (around $33.5 million) yesterday.Right now, Glu is holding its analyst conference call, during which we can expect to hear more about that goodwill impairment charge.

Meanwhile, we'll be interviewing Ballard tomorrow to get his take on Q3, current market conditions, and Glu's strategy going forward.


Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Contributing Editor

Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)