Take-Two Investors Pull Back On Q1 Earnings: Company Updates Guidance With Zynga Acquisition, Highlights 'Strong' Video Game Pipeline

Video game company Take-Two Interactive Inc TTWO reported first quarter financial results after the market close Monday. Here are the key highlights for investors.

What Happened: Take Two reported first-quarter GAAP net revenue of $1.1 billion, up 36% year-over-year. Net bookings were $1 billion in the first quarter, up 41% year-over-year.

Digital net bookings were $956 million in the first quarter, up 41% year-over-year. Digital net bookings represented 95% of total net bookings in the quarter.

The company reported a GAAP net loss of 76 cents per share in the first quarter.

Take Two completed its acquisition of mobile gaming company Zynga on May 23, 2022. Zynga was included in 39 days of the first-quarter results.

Games that were highlighted in the quarter include “NBA 2K22,” “Grand Theft Auto Online, “Grand Theft Auto V,” “Red Dead Redemption 2” and “Red Dead Online.

Sales of catalog titles were $876.1 million in the first quarter.

“Our fiscal 2023 is off to a strong start, as demonstrated by our first quarter net bookings of $1 billion,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

“On a pre-combination basis, our net bookings were approximately $731 million, and our operating results were above our expectations, as we launched engaging new games and content updates, all while navigating various macroeconomic and geopolitical factors.”

Related Link: Take Two Analysts: Zynga Acquisition, Video Game Pipeline Highlight Future Growth 

What’s Next: The company sees full fiscal year 2023 net bookings hitting a range of $5.8 billion to $5.9 billion based on the inclusion of the Zynga acquisition. Net revenue guidance from the company for the full year is a range of $5.73 billion to $5.83 billion on a GAAP basis.

The company sees second-quarter net bookings hitting a range of $1.5 to $1.55 billion and GAAP revenue hitting a range of $1.37 billion to $1.42 billion.

“Our pipeline for the year continues to look very strong, and we are excited to expand significantly our mobile presence with a best-in-class platform,” Zelnick said.

The new outlook includes updates to the company’s release schedule, foreign currency pressures, macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.

“We remain exceedingly optimistic about the long-term growth potential for the mobile industry, as well as our ability to create greater shareholder value as a combined entity with Zynga.”

The CEO said the company remains committed to $100 million in annual cost synergies within the first two years after closing the Zynga acquisition “with the potential for upside.”

TTWO Price Action: Take Two shares were down 5.94% at $118.05 in after-hours trading Monday.