Electronic Arts posts $454m FY loss

Electronic Arts has posted a $454 million net loss for the year ended March 31st, 2008 – down from a net profit of $76 million in FY 2006-2007.

The company’s acquisition of development duo Bioware and Pandemic back in October, 2007 took its toll on the figure – a combined $620 million expenditure that went through in February this year.

However, the company’s net revenues gave it something to smile about in the 12-month period, reaching $3.67 billion – up from $3.09 billion in the prior year.

For its fourth quarter, EA lost $94 million, up year-on-year from $25 million.

Perhaps the most impressive performence in the company’s fiscal results was its Q4 net revenue. This beat Wall Street expectations, up 84 per cent to $1.13 billion, from $613 million a year earlier. The figure was driven by sales of Rock Band and Army of Two.

The company took restructuring charges of $103 million during the fiscal year, compared with just $15 million the previous year.

It also spent $104 million more on research and development compared with the previous year.

In addition, the company took a $138 million charge for "acquired in-process technology" during the most recent quarter and year.

The firm said it expected a net profit of between 25 cents and 52 cents per share on net revenue of between $4.9 billion and $5.15 billion for FY 2008-2009.

EA did not mention its $2 billion bid for Take-Two in its fiscal report. The company’s ‘hostile’ tender bid expires on Friday.