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Namco Bandai Reports 66% Drop in Q1 Profit
posted on by Gage
The American business magazine Forbes reports that Namco Bandai Holdings (the parent company of Sunrise, Bandai Visual, Bandai Entertainment, and Namco) announced on Wednesday a 66-percent drop in operating profit in the first quarter of the current fiscal year compared to last year. Namco Bandai blamed this drop in the April–June quarter on less business in Japanese arcades due to increasing gas prices, the launch of new game consoles, slowing business in its entertainment franchises, and lower toy sales. However, the company says that this year's earnings guidance remains unchanged.
In the music/video areas of the company that include anime, Namco Bandai recorded a operatng loss of 234 million yen (US$2.1 million), compared to an operating profit of 1.1 billion yen (US$10 million) in the same quarter last year. Namco Bandai president Takeo Takasu attributed the loss to a slump in DVD sales, as the Namco Bandai Group companies waited for the end of the high-definition disc format war before shifting more resources to Blu-ray Disc. The format war effectively ended in February.
Namco Bandai was formed in 2005 as a result of a merger between Namco and Bandai.
Source: Gunota Headlines
