Glu Mobile's Q4 2012 smartphone revenues up 1% quarter-over-quarter to $18.5M, up 24 percent Y-o-Y

Glu Mobile today reported total non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) smartphone revenues of $18.5 million for Q4 2012, up slightly by one percent from Q3 2012's $18.3 million, and up 24 percent from Q4 2011's $15 million. iOS and Android accounted for 92 percent of the mobile game developer and publisher's revenue, barely down from Q3 2012, where games on Apple and Google's mobile platforms accounted for 93 percent of Glu's sales. The company's total revenue for the fourth quarter was $20.8 million, up 4 percent from total revenue of $20.1 million in Q4 2011, although down two percent quarter-over-quarter from total revenue of $21.2 million in Q3 2012. Non-GAAP operating loss was $2.5 million for the quarter compared to Q4 2011's $1.2 million and Q3's $2.7 million. Glu's non-GAAP net loss was $3.2 million in Q4 2012, resulting in a loss of $0.02 per share. According to Glu Mobile CEO Niccolo de Masi, smartphone revenue was flat compared to Q3 2012 due to the company's decision to delay the global launch of approximately half of its Q4 2012 titles. In Glu's earnings call, he said the delay allowed Glu's recently appointed president of studios Matt Ricchetti to improve ARPDAU for those games. The San Francisco-headquartered company launched four freemium games in the fourth quarter including Death Dome, Contract Killer 2, Dragon Slayer and Contract Killer Zombies 2. The four titles 4 accounted for 21 percent of non-GAAP smartphone revenue in the same quarter. Glu plans to launch five titles in Q1 2013, none of which have been released yet, and 15 titles in total for 2013. Daily active users (DAU) dropped from 3.8 million in Q3 to 3.5 million in Q4. Monthly active users (MAU) also fell from an 37.7 million in Q3 to 34.8 million in Q4. This quarter, only Glu's average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU) figure fell quarter-over-quarter from 7.5 cents in Q3 to 6.7 cents in Q4, while the average for the percentage of MAU converting to paid players remained the same at 0.7 percent. Stardom: The A List continued to have the highest ARPDAU at 9.1 cents, despite being down from 11.1 cents in September 2012. Although the female-focused game was dethroned as the conversation rate leader by Deer Hunter Reloaded, which had converted 0.9 percent of MAUs to paid users. Stardom: The A List's conversation rate fell from 1.1 percent in Sept. to 0.8 percent in Dec. Recently released Contract Killer 2 reported the highest DAU count, with 263,000 players opening the game on a daily basis. Contract Killer 2 was also the most lucrative title for Glu, generating $2.7 million in non-GAAP revenue in Q4 for the company. In close second was Eternity Warrior 2, pulling in $2.5 million in the same quarter, up from $2 million it generated in Q3 2012. For its first quarter in 2013, Glu estimated non-GAAP smartphone revenue between $16 million and $17 million, which is lower than Glu's estimate for Q4 2012 of revenue between $17.5 million and $18.5 million. The company predicted between $84 million and $88 million for the 2013 fiscal year, up from its prediction of $73.6 million to $74.6 million it gave in the Q3 2012 earnings report. As of Dec. 31, 2012, Glu finished the year with 22.3 million of cash in its war chest. The company's stock price fell by nearly five percent after the release of its earnings report to $2.12 per share, with a market cap of $139.8 million.

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Glu Mobile's Q4 2012 smartphone revenues up 1% quarter-over-quarter to $18.5M, up 24 percent Y-o-Y

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