Lara Croft creators fight on without FD
Beleaguered UK computer games publisher Eidos is contining to operate without a financial director and has seen its share price tumble in the past week.
CFO Jeremy Lewis resigned in October last year, followed less than a month later by the departure of chief executive Charles Cornwall, heralding the end of takeover talks with French suitor, Infogrames Entertainment, and a slide further into the red.
A spokesperson for Eidos said the company was ‘actively searching’ for a new finance director as well as an independent non-executive director, and would make an announcement as soon as possible.
On Wednesday the company announced pre-tax losses of Pounds 13.9m between April and December, and predicted a poor trading forecast, prompting a 15% fall in the value of the company’s stock. Eidos shares fell to 228.5p on Wednesday morning, 37.5p down on the day.
In November last year, the company reported losses of Pounds 82m in the six months to the end of September, compared with a loss of £38m the year before.
Eidos chairman Ian Livingstone said the company remained cautious about its trading prospects for the next year, adding, ‘there continues to be a lack of visibility through to Christmas 2001’.
But he predicted the company would return to profitability by the end of the year, after unveiling an ambitious plan to launch a portfolio of 30 games over the next two years, plus a cost-trimming programme and a deal with Nokia to access Eidos games via its Wap phones.
His comments were echoed by chief executive Mike McGarvey, who said Eidos would return to profitability by cutting operating costs and generating revenues from new titles for next-generation game consoles such as Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s X Box.
Eidos is most famous for its buxom female heroine Lara Croft, star of adventure game Tomb Raider. Shares were last trading at 210p. In December 1999, the stock peaked at more than 1270p.
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