Grand Warszawski
Israeli videogame maker Playtika (NASDAQ:PLTK) fell 5% Friday after quarterly profits fell short despite a surprise gain in revenue, and the company put a pause on its evaluation of strategic alternatives.
Overall revenue rose 1.1% year-over-year, and 1.2% sequentially, to $637.9M. Of that, direct-to-consumer platform revenue rose 7.6% from the prior year to $161.6M.
But expenses rose a little faster, and operating income fell to $120M from $128.3M, while a heavy provision for income taxes dropped net income to $37.3M from $87.5M.
Meanwhile, "Due to ongoing uncertainty in Israel and Ukraine, the Board of Directors has decided to pause the company’s evaluation of strategic alternatives," Playtika said.
In operating metrics, Playtika said average daily active users fell to 8.6M from 8.8M, average daily paying users fell 2.2% year-over-year to 306,000, and average payer conversion was flat at 3.5% (down from Q3's 3.6%).
Digging into game revenue in particular, Playtika noted casual games revenue rose 5.5% year-over-year, while social casino-themed game revenue fell 4.6%. Bingo Blitz fell 3.1% year-over-year to $150.3M; June's Journey revenue rose 33.3%; and Slotomania revenue fell 8.3%.
“In the past year, we’ve honed our focus on efficiency and streamlined our operations, adapting to evolving industry dynamics in mobile gaming,” said CEO Robert Antokol in the company's report. “Now, with a solid foundation, 2024 marks our shift towards reinvestment – pursuing M&A opportunities with a strategic intent of capital deployment.”
To that end, the company's initiated a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share in order to return capital to shareholders, and it's earmarking $600M-$1.2B for merger/acquisition activity over the next three years, Chief Financial Officer Craig Abrahams said. It will also examine future buybacks.
The company guided to full-year 2024 revenue of $2.52B-$2.62B, vs. consensus for $2.62B. It also sees credit adjusted EBITDA of $730M-$770M, and capital expenditures of $110M-$115M.