Eidos shares shoot up
The City had Eidos up to 925p on early trading this morning, following an 18 per cent rise from 740p to 870p yesterday, after the company said sales for the October-December quarter had doubled year on year to four million units. On the US NASDAQ market, Eidos was also well up.
Company secretary Charlotte Eastwood said that the main factor in the sales hike had been the mammoth success of Tomb Raider II, the game that made Lara Croft a household name.
"The fact is we had a very good game and there were huge advance sales," Eastwood said.
However, she claimed that the company shouldn't be seen by analysts as a one-trick pony.
"People have said it but we do have a wide catalogue [including the highly profitable Championship Manager]. We're also widely spread with 140 staff in Wimbledon, London and a worldwide staff of 350 including US, French and German offices. We feel we were undervalued [by financial analysts]. I'd agree that our stock has been on a rollercoaster; the market hasn't always understood exactly what we were doing."
Despite access to cash, Eastwood said she didn't expect Eidos to necessarily continue with its spate of acquisitions that has seen several companies including Domark and Centregold join the Eidos umbrella brand in the last three years.
"We have done quite a lot of growing into our own skin with re-organisations and rationalisation. For an 18-month period there were moments when we running to stand still."