Take-Two Restates 2006, Reports Losses

Take-Two, mega-publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, has had a few financial hiccups lately. After quite a bit of turmoil over the misuse of stock options that lead to expensive investigations and slower sales due transition to next generation hardware, the company, according to The Street, has restated its earnings for 2006. On top of all that, Soleil and Citigroup recently downgraded Take-Two to sell. What does this mean for Take-Two investors? A slow start to a profitable year.

The biggest reason being cited for problems with Take-Two income is the longer development time required for next generation games. Apparently it takes longer to make games that won’t sell on the PS3. What Take-Two doesn’t really want to talk about is how previous executives pulled some tricks with stock options and caused the company money via their shenanigans. All of this won’t matter, however, in less than a year.

Though Take-Two may not be doing so well right now, there’s a magic word that just screams money: Grand Theft Auto, and there’s quite a bit of that due out this year. When Grand Theft Auto launches later this year, Take-Two should be on cloud nine. With GTA and a re-emerging 2K sports football, things should turn around.

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