News
China pushes Glu's revenue in Q1
Stuart O'Brien May 14 2008, 10:36am
Unexpectedly strong performance from Chinese subsidiary sees Glu Mobile's revs jump 31 per cent in 1Q08.
The US mobile game publisher's revenue for the quarter was $20.6 million, representing an increase of 31 per cent over 1Q07 and up 14 per cent on 4Q07.
Net losses on a GAAP basis amounted to $6 million for the quarter, while non-GAAP losses came in at $42,000.
Glu's Chinese operation MIG, which it acquired in December, and 3D studio Superscape, which it bought in March, contributed revenue of $2.7 million in 1Q.
Overall, Glu's top 10 titles represented 43 per cent of revenue, down from 52% in the fourth quarter of 2007. The average revenue per top 10 titles was $886,000 in the quarter, roughly flat from the first quarter last year and a seven per cent decline from the fourth quarter of 2007.
In terms of guidance, Glu says it expects full-year 2008 revenues in the range of $96.5-100 million. Non-GAAP net income is expected to be $5.9-7 million.
In an earnings call, Glu CEO Greg Ballard said: "This is our first full quarter results from MIG our acquired publisher in China surpassing our own expectations with results that are based almost entirely on a original IP, is that the related effect of course of helping our gross margins as well."
He added: "We are excited about the introduction of new platforms from Apple and Google and a continued rollout of N-Gage from Nokia and Sidekick from Microsoft."
Other performance highlights included:
No title represented more than 10 per cent of revenue in the first quarter and the largest title represented only six per cent of global revenue.
Revenue from Glu original titles was 20 per cent of total revenue, an increase from the 11 per cent in 4Q07.
In absolute dollars, revenue from new titles grew 13 per cent over 1Q07 and 19 per cent over 4Q07.
Glu's top four carriers represented approximately 47 per cent of revenue in 1Q08 compared to 47 per cent in 1Q07. Chine is now a top four carrier for Glu.
By geography, revenue for 1Q08 was 51 per cent in North America, 30 per cent in EMEA and 19 per cent in RoW.
Royalties in the current quarter were $5.5 million, which represented 26.7 per cent of revenue, compared to 28.2 per cent of revenue in 4Q07.
