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THQ's Q3 results in line with expectations

Publisher reports $542k income; sales flat on last year

THQ has announced its third quarter financials for the period ending December 31, 2009, showing income of $542k (£341.4k) for the three months.

That net income amount was an increase on the previous year, when the company lost $191.8m (£120.8m).

Sales for the quarter were flat on the prior quarter, totalling $356.7m (£224.7m) compared to $357.3m ($225m).

However, president and CEO Brian Farrell called the performance a significant turnaround for the company, while sales were in line with expectations.

"We are pleased to report solid profitability in the third quarter and we are on track to achieve all of our fiscal 2010 financial targets that we announced at the beginning of the fiscal year," said Farrell. "This marks a significant turnaround for THQ in just one year and underscores the success of our focused strategy and reduced cost structure."

For the nine months ending December 31, the company reported net income of $1.4m (£882k) - or $0.02 per share - compared with a net loss of $334.2m (£210.5m) in 2008.

"In addition to meeting our financial targets, we launched two new franchises, UFC and Darksiders, and significantly strengthened our balance sheet. We also secured new long-term license agreements and continued to migrate our brands to digital platforms in order to drive THQ's growth over the next several years," added Farrell.

New licence agreements struck by the publisher have included a new eight year deal to develop and publish games based on the WWE licence and a multi-year agreement with DreamWorks Animation.

Earlier this week, THQ announced it had shipped 3.5 million units of its debut UFC Undisputed game - a follow-up to which will be published later this year.