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Funcom CFO resigns in wake of $23.3M loss
These are bad times all around in the massively multiplayer online game industry in terms of the economy. The troubles of some companies are still coming to light, as is the case with Funcom. James Lee from GamesIndustry.biz writes that Funcom has reported its Q4 2008 financial results with "an operating loss of USD 23.3 million, caused by a depreciation of USD 22.8 million due to the lagging performance of Age of Conan." In addition, Funcom CFO Olav Sandes has given notice of his resignation. Sandes is not the first high level employee to quit in recent months, but all is not doom and gloom. Funcom's Q4 2008 subscription revenues from Age of Conan have shot up to USD 8.7 million, up from USD 1.2 million year-on-year, Lee reports. Funcom expects a Q1 2009 revenue of between USD 6 million and 8 million, largely comprised of subscription fees for Age of Conan. James Lee's GamesIndustry.biz article has further details on Funcom's financial situation. Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
Douglas C. Jeffries replacing Andy Brown as Palm CFO
Palm's newfound place back on the map of relevance has people all sorts of excited, including one Douglas C. Jeffries. The former chief accounting officer at eBay has been appointed CFO at Palm, taking the place of the occasionally cagey Andy Brown. Mr. Jeffries will officially be wearing his new badge in January, though Andy will stay on into the new year to ensure "a smooth transition." Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer, stated that he was "delighted to welcome Doug Jeffries to the Palm team," noting that his "extensive financial, operational and strategic experience will contribute enormously to Palm's future success." Of course, we'd say that a fresh OS and / or device at CES would contribute infinitely more to this strange beast called "success," but maybe we're underestimating this man's clout.[Via Palm InfoCenter]
Activision CFO: "Blizzard is top notch"
Develop magazine got to talk to Thomas Tippl, who is Activision's CFO (we've heard a lot from CEO Bobby Kotick, but never from Tippl before) about the Activision Blizzard merger and how it will affect both companies. Tippl reiterates what we've heard before: that Activision has no plans to tell Blizzard how to do their jobs when they've been doing so well already.He does, however, say that a "portfolio review" is in order, and so employees of Sierra (Vivendi's other games division) should start working on their resumes, if they haven't started already. He also says the sales teams of each company will likely be consolidated -- they want to put an "all-star team" together, but the thing about stars is that not everyone can be one.So the merger remains good news for Blizzard, not-so-good news for the rest of Vivendi. We're still curious to see what happens when/if Blizzard falls out of Activision's good graces. Sure, everything is peachy-keen right now, but when Blizzard's stubborn commitment to quality bumps up against Activision's almost yearly franchise releases, who'll walk away the victor?[Via WorldofWar.net]
Sony CFO: PS3 'plan is to not reduce the price'
Prospective PS3 purchasers pining for an Xbox-360-style price reduction for Sony's system during next week's E3 show probably shouldn't get their hopes up. Talking to a forum in Singapore, Sony CFO Noboyuki Oneda said point blank, "our plan is not to reduce the price," according to the Agence France-Press report. The report also quotes Oneda saying that Sony's focus for the coming year would be "not to sell more quantity for PS3, but to concentrate on profitability."Of course, Oneda is a Japanese executive speaking to an Asian audience, so his remarks may not apply directly to American pricing. Keep in mind too that Sony has played coy about price drops in the past. That said, if we were betting men, we wouldn't bet on getting a PS3 for less than $399 any time soon.[Via Engadget]
Chinese MMO distributor gains new Chief Financial Officer
There's been a recent personnel change to China's leading distributor of online gaming. The9 Limited has recently appointed Mr. George Lai as Chief Financial Officer after the resignation of Mr. Tony Tse, due to personal and family reasons. Mr. Lai brings several years of experience to the table, having worked previously at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu since 2000.The9 Limited operates licensed MMORPGs for Chinese players, including World of Warcraft, Hellgate: London, Ragnarok Online 2, Huxley and many more. The9 Limited is also developing various proprietary games of their own including Warriors of Fate Online and Fantastic Melody Online.
Dell's CFO resigns, will be replaced by Brian T. Gladden
Shortly after hearing of rearrangements amongst the XPS / Alienware dev teams, along comes word the outfit's current CFO will be headed out in June. Donald J. Carty (pictured), who was just hired as chief financial officer 1.5 years ago, will be resigning in June and will be replaced by longtime General Electric executive Brian T. Gladden. Mr. Gladden stated that he was "excited to be joining Dell at a time of transformation," and considering the $700,000 annual base salary along with the $2 million signing bonus (amongst other monetary perks), we highly doubt he's fibbing. It should be noted that the Round Rock powerhouse will keep Carty on its board, and that he actually "indicated several months ago that he wanted to retire as CFO."[Via CNET]
Sprint gets slapped with debt downgrade, lawsuit
If there's one thing Sprint doesn't need at the moment, we'd say that "a harder time getting cash" ranks high on the list. That's where big ol' number three finds itself at the moment, though, thanks to a credit downgrade by Standard & Poor's from "BBB-" to "BB," a move that puts its bonds squarely in junk territory. S&P has some harsh words for Sprint regarding the move, too, explaining that it went down thanks to its "assessment that Sprint Nextel's business risk profile is no longer supportive of an investment-grade rating given its deteriorating operating performance and lack of visibility in the wireless business." Lack of visibility in the wireless business, eh? Snap! The junkification of Sprint's debt coincides with the installment of a new CFO -- purely a coincidence, no doubt -- effective immediately.But wait, the bad news isn't over. A workers' lawsuit filed in US District Court last week alleges that Sprint dumped pension plan cash into Sprint stock at a time when... well, let's just say that it wasn't exactly a solid investment. The suit names 12 Sprint board members as co-defendants and looks to recover the money lost as Sprint stock slid into the basement; furthermore, it's looking to garner class-action status, meaning that the carrier could potentially owe money to a whole boatload of employees if the plaintiffs win the whole shebang.Read - Debt downgrade, new CFORead - Pension plan lawsuit
EA hires former EA exec as new CFO
EA's named a replacement for outgoing Chief Financial Officer Warren Jenson and the winner is: Eric Brown of McAfee Inc. GameDaily reports Brown is no stranger to the ways of EA, having served as Chief Operating Officer of EA's Redwood Shores Studio.EA CEO John Riccitiello says Brown's broad international experience and industry knowledge make him a perfect fit for the company. Surprisingly there was no gloating about needing a CFO on board who can easily handle a major acquisition. Brown officially begins the job April 14, three days after EA's hostile takeover deadline against Take-Two.
Comcast's CFO claims that "not every HD channel deserves to be in HD"
Although Comcast has been fairly headstrong about updating its HD offerings of late, the firm's Chief Financial Officer was caught making some fairly interesting remarks during a discussion at the annual Bear Stearns Media Conference in Florida. First off, the exec deemed Comcast's HD service "great," but did acknowledge that DirecTV did a "better job" of marketing its HD capabilities. Additionally, he proclaimed that even though the carrier is capable of tossing in upwards of 150 high-def channels (trimming down, are we?) into its lineup, "not every HD channel deserves to be in HD, and there are lots of HD channels that aren't watched very much." Yeah, we're curious to know the context of said statement, but still, we can't think of a single network -- boring or not -- that wouldn't at least look better if aired in high-definition.
Cryptic Studios hires new suit
Another juicy bit of news floated our way from Cryptic Studios, following a week of non-stop juicy morsels. They've announced that they've hired Ed Roffman to take over the position of chief financial officer effective immediately. Roffman has a long history on the financial side of the industry, working with Activision for much of the 1980's and several smaller software companies since then. He should be a strong asset on the Cryptic executive team.The hiring of a new CFO (a new position for the Los Gatos developer) is only further confirmation of Cryptic Studios' aspirations to become an independent development powerhouse. Champions Online will be the first title developed and published by Cryptic, so it's crucial that they have the appropriate financial oversight to really see this project all the way through. And with current speculation that they're also working on at least two other original titles as well, this need is only going to be amplified with time.[Via Gamasutra]
Motorola anoints new CFO
Despite praise heaped upon Motorola's interim CFO Tom Meredith during his one-year tenure, he's being replaced as of March 1 by Paul Liska, an outsider who's done time with Sears and private equity firms in recent years. The move comes as a surprise, with many predicting that the permanent chief would come from the inside -- either by naming Meredith to the position or selecting someone else -- but let's be honest, Moto can use about as much fresh thinking as it can get its hands on at the moment. A Citibank analyst has gone on record saying he's a "big fan" of Meredith, pegging him as a guy who brought a lot of "financial discipline" into the beleaguered number three manufacturer -- so heads up, Liska, you've got some big shoes to fill.
THQ gets new CFO (also: acronym two-for-one sale ongoing)
THQ has hired industry newbie Colin Slade to fill the roll of Chief Financial Officer at the company following last year's abrupt departure of Edward Zinser. At the time, THQ made sure to say that Zinser's departure was a "mutual agreement between Mr. Zinser and the company" and had nothing to do with any financial issues.THQ has recently been on a kick to change its license-heavy image with new IPs and some ironically filled executive positions. Slade should be fine handling THQ's finances, as he formerly worked at Tektronix, Inc., a company with $1 billion in revenue. Despite THQ's apparent change, we still expect plenty of standard license-holding cash-in games like SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam! this year.
THQ's CFO resigns, company says no financial issue
THQ's Chief Financial Officer Edward Zinser has left the building, but we're sure it's not even half as dramatic as what Waring Hudsucker (above) did when he left his own company. THQ says that the resignation was a "mutual agreement between Mr. Zinser and the company" and insists it has nothing to do with its financial situation, which was a little down last quarter and not par for the course.THQ wouldn't comment further on Mr. Zinser's polite but hurried exit out the door, which of course makes us imagine all the scandalous things that a video game CFO could be capable of. If there is more to this story it'll start shacking out soon enough. So, yeah, THQ's hiring for a CFO! As a point of reference, the guy who gets the job temporarily only has 20 years of experience, so start submitting resumes if you can trump that.
Mad Catz finally appoints new CFO
Mad Catz has named journeyman financial exec Stewart Halpern as its newest CFO, replacing Cyril Talbot III who left the position nearly four months ago. Halpern will officially join the company on January 15.Halpern leaves Rockstar, where he was head of finance, to join the peripheral maker. Previously, he was CFO for Def Jam's holding company Rush Communications. After posting a net loss of $6.7 million back in June, Mad Catz is looking to Halpern to turn things around in the New Year. Good luck with that.
Fred Anderson resigns from Apple Board
In a comment under yesterday's report on the outcome of the Apple stock option investigation, SubGenius wisely proclaimed "Fred is going to be the fall guy." Congratulations, SubGenius - you win a brand new star! (or at least you will when the star system is working again)Fred Anderson, who valiantly served as Apple CFO from '96 to '04, informed Apple that he believes "it is in Apple's best interests that he resign from the board at this time." His official resignation was Sept 30, 2006. Of course just because Anderson resigned from the board doesn't mean he did anything wrong or that he's covering up for anyone else.. this kind of thing happens all the time. He probably just wants to spend more time with his family and improve his golf swing.
