King Digital share price crashes as Candy Crush maker is hit by poor quarter results
Candy Crush maker King Digital entertainment yesterday announced poor second-quarter revenue, sending its share price crashing by 21 per cent in after-hours trading.
This was the UK-based, but New York-listed company’s second quarterly report as a public company since its IPO in late March.
Revenue in the three months ended in June rose to $593.5m (£353m), yielding EPS of 59 cents.
This was short of the $609m expected by analysts.
The company also announced a special dividend of $150m, or 46.9 cents per share, to be paid to shareholders on 30 September.
Chief executive Riccardo Zacconi said the company had “continued to advance several key strategic objectives to position King for long-term success”.
He added that this included “extending our franchises with the launch of our first franchise sequel, Bubble Witch 2 Saga; expanding opportunities to leverage our massive player base with the acquisition of Nonstop Games, our new Singapore studio dedicated to new genre titles; and broadening our geographic reach with the initial rollout of a localized version of Candy Crush Saga in China in partnership with Tencent”.