Atari on the up but still in the red with $9.1m loss

Just over a week since Atari CEO James Caparro's shock resignation, the company has posted financial results for fiscal fourth quarter, reporting losses of $9.1 million on sales of $62.7 million.

These figures are an improvement over those for the same period last year, which stood at $17.31 million on $64.8 million in sales. Atari cited costs incurred by closing studios in California and Massachusetts as accounting for $4.9 million of the loss.

Net revenue is down from $447.5 million in the 2004 financial year to $395.2 million for 2005. Income attributable to common shareholders for fiscal year 2005 was $5.7 million, or $0.05 per share, compared to a loss of $38.6 million, equivalent to $0.40 per share, in 2004.

The company announced plans to dispose of non-core assets over the coming months, including Washington state-based development studio Humongous Entertainment. Atari will either sell or close the studio before the end of financial year 2006.

To the surprise of industry analysts Atari did not offer any guidance for the upcoming fiscal period. However, the company did reveal that the process streamlining and restructuring would continue into next year.

"Fiscal 2006 will be a year of focus at Atari. We will be releasing fewer SKUs than in fiscal 2005," said interim CEO Bruno Bonnell.

"By improving our business processes in order to release higher quality products on time and on budget and creating comprehensive global market initiatives to support them, we will be taking better advantage of our assets.

"We have accomplished many of our goals as we have completed the relocation of our publishing operations, transformed our senior management team and secured a new credit facility," Bonnell continued.

"Atari remains focused on growing our market share and increasing profitability to industry levels, thereby creating greater shareholder value."