On 27 September 2007 the Company announced that it was in discussions with a number of interested parties with respect to a potential offer. Discussions have been ongoing since that announcement with various interested parties but the Company has not received a formal offer within the timeframe requested.
The Company is announcing today that the Board no longer believes that a sale of the Company for its full value is likely to be achieved at the current time and has reached the view that it is not in the Company's or its Shareholders' interests to prolong these discussions further and therefore offer related discussions have been terminated today. However, as a result of these discussions certain commercial and strategic opportunities have emerged which the Company is continuing to explore and progress.
Following a review of our 2008 platform and product line up, we have decided to move the release date of 4 titles into the 4th calendar quarter. The most significant of these titles is the next Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider: Underworld, which we are now scheduling to launch on 6 platforms (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, NDS, Wii and PS2) simultaneously during the Christmas season as opposed to the previously planned 3 platforms (PC, PS3 and Xbox 360) in June. As a result of these changes the Board now expects that the Company will make an operating loss in FY08, but the Board believes that these simultaneous multi-platform launches in the key buying period, optimises the value that these franchises can deliver to the Company over the long term.
The product slate for the remainder of FY08 comprises 10 titles over 17 platforms including Conflict: Denied Ops and products targeting the growing casual market on NDS and Wii platforms, such as the first in our Warner Bros line-up (including Looney Tunes and Wacky Races) and the next instalment of the highly successful Pony Friends game.
As part of the decision to make these changes to the platform and release schedule, the Company has reviewed the impact this may have on its working capital needs and has identified sources of additional working capital which may be required.
The Board is pleased with the Company's Christmas trading results and in particular the performance of Kane and Lynch, which was launched on 13 November in the US and 23 November in Europe. Indications are that this title has now sold through over 1 million units at retail since launch. We anticipate a positive sales trend to continue through the remainder of FY08 and for Kane and Lynch to firmly establish itself as another key franchise for the Group. As a guide to the success of this game, sales-to-date in the comparable period have now exceeded those of the highly acclaimed and successful title Hitman: Blood Money.
Pony Friends, first launched in May 2007, has also continued to perform well with life-to-date sell through now exceeding 600,000 units on NDS alone.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary on Wii was launched into the Christmas market and has also performed well with reorders already made.