Acclaim raises $13 million

Publisher Acclaim, recently beset by financial and product-related troubles, has raised $13 million through a combination of selling common stock and prepayment of notes from the company's co-chairmen.

$9 million of the figure was raised through the placement of 16.4 million shares with private investors, at a price of 55 cents per share, with the remainder coming from co-chairmen Greg Fischbach and James Scoroposki, who each paid $2 million of their outstanding notes for the purchase of common stock.

The money leaves Acclaim in a significantly stronger financial position than previously - at the end of March the publisher had only $4 million cash on hand, and this additional funding will make that figure look a lot healthier. It's expected that the funds will be used to complete development of products currently in the pipeline.

However, analyst assessments suggest that although the fund-raising will certainly help Acclaim, the company still has a long path ahead of it. "The company still faces an uphill path to profitability," commented Wedbrush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. "We believe that Acclaim's stock will trade in a narrow range until the company demonstrates that its games can compete in the marketplace."