THQ Announces Losses, Layoffs

THQ has reported a loss for its fourth quarter and financial year, and has confirmed that job cuts will follow as a result.

Net sales for the fiscal year reached $1.030 billion, an increase over the $1.027 billion recorded in the previous fiscal and the thirteenth consecutive year of revenue growth, according to a GamesIndustry report. But a weaker-than-expected sell-through of titles released earlier in the year resulted in a net loss of $34.5 million for the fourth quarter and $35.3 million on the year.

“In fiscal 2008, we did not achieve our revenue and profit targets and we are taking aggressive steps to ensure that we significantly improve execution in fiscal 2009 and beyond,” said THQ President and CEO Brian Farrell. “Going forward, we are focused on three key initiatives. We are rolling out a strong slate of products. We have put in place and are executing against initiatives to improve our product quality and competitiveness. We are also realigning our cost structure to generate significant operating leverage in fiscal 2009.”

“We believe these initiatives will restore profitable growth and improve value for shareholders,” he added.

The company also confirmed that roughly 200 jobs would be cut as a result of the poor financial results, although future job growth over the course of the next fiscal was also predicted.. “In terms of the restructuring action in the near term we’re probably going to be taking at about 200 headcount,” THQ Chief Financial Officer Colin Slade told analysts in a conference call following the report. “However, over the course of the year, we do expect to see overall headcount growth from around 2400 as we exit this fiscal year to under 2700 at the end of the next fiscal year.”