Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. shares slipped in the extended session Monday, after the videogame publisher announced it was cutting costs, which includes personnel, and said it had misjudged its previous outlook for the fiscal year, following a holiday quarter that disappointed many consumer-electronics makers, chip makers and game publishers. Take-Two
TTWO,
-3.40%
shares initially slipped 2% after hours, following a 3.4% decline to close the regular session at $105.56, but were last down only 0.5%. Take-Two publishes such videogame franchises as “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption” under its Rockstar Games label, and “Borderlands” and “NBA2K” under its 2K label.
“We are operating in an environment that is, in many ways, more challenging than we anticipated,” Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s chairman and chief executive, told analysts on the conference call. Zelnick told analysts he took “personal responsibility” for the outlook cut, and that net bookings for the third quarter of $1.38 billion were below even the company’s own forecast $1.41 billion to $1.46 billion. The company forecast net bookings for the fourth quarter of $1.31 billion to $1.36 billion, and $5.2 billion to $5.25 billion for the year. Meanwhile, the Street was expecting $1.5 billion and $5.45 billion, respectively. Take-Two forecast fiscal fourth-quarter total revenue of $1.34 billion to $1.39 billion, and revenue of $5.24 billion to $5.29 billion for the year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated total revenue of $1.5 billion for the …