EA’s Stock Dives On Lowered Holiday Sales Guidance

Electronic Arts

First Take-Two, then GameStop, and now EA. Seems like it wasn’t such a happy holiday season for the video game industry, as Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) has become the latest game company to lower guidance in advance of its Q4 earnings report.

The company expects GAAP revenue for the quarter (its fiscal Q3) to be between $1.23 billion and $1.25 billion, or a loss of 24-cents to 32-cents per share. Non-GAAP revs (excluding deferred digital revenue and restructuring charges) should come in between $1.33 billion and $1.35 billion — or an EPS of 29-cents to 33-cents — still below the Street’s expectations of a 56-cent EPS on $1.42 billion in revenue. EA blamed the lowered forecast on “weakness” for its games and the overall disc-based game market in Europe, as well as a shift to more digital distribution in the U.S.

EA also lowered its full year guidance: It now expects to end its fiscal 2010 (which ends March 31) with a GAAP net revs in the $3.6 billion to $3.7 billion range — or a loss of $1.94 to $2.24 per share. The news sent the company’s shares down by over 8.7 percent in after-hours trading. Release | Webcast

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