You have probably played at least a couple of Glu Mobile’s games, as they are a game publisher based out of San Francisco, CA with several big hit titles, including the Deer Hunter, Blood & Glory, and the Frontline Commando series. This Thursday the company has released their financial results for the third quarter of the current fiscal year and made some interesting announcements to boost up their business for the future.
On a press release, Glu Mobile announced a Q3 revenue of $64.4 million, a significant drop from the $83.6 million they made a year ago. However, the number is slightly above the $60 million expected by analysts, mainly thanks to the continued outperformance of their Cooking Dash game. For the following quarter, though, things don’t look very good for the company, as CEO Niccolo De Masi said that they would miss their fourth-quarter earnings and revenues target, resulting in an 18% fall for Glu’s stock in after-hours trading. Mentioning the company was “exceptionally disappointed” with the guidance, all staff bonuses were cancelled for the year.
To boost up their business, De Masi announced new long-term partnerships with famous artists such as Kim Kardashian, whose partnership has brought a lot of money for the company – 43M last year. Names include Katy Perry, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, and Jason Statham. These artists together have over 1 billion followers on social media and the executive said that by 2017 there will be titles featuring these celebrities. The game maker also struck an important deal with Chinese internet giant Tencent to bring their chart-topping shooter game WeFire to North and South America, Europe, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand next year. Additionally, the company has appointed Nick Earl, a veteran from rivals Kabam and Electronic Arts as their new President of Global Studios. “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Nick Earl as Glu’s President of Global Studios. He has shipped worldwide mobile hits including Marvel: Contest of Champions, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, The Sims FreePlay, and Real Racing 3 and we are pleased with the opportunity to attract such a world-class proven talent to Glu,” commented De Masi.