Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO) today reported financial results for its third quarter fiscal 2013, ended December 31, 2012, and increased the low-end of its financial outlook range for its fiscal year 2013, ending March 31, 2013. In addition, the Company announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to 7.5 million shares of the Company’s common stock.

For its third quarter fiscal 2013, GAAP net revenue was $415.8 million, as compared to $236.3 million for its third quarter fiscal 2012. Non-GAAP net revenue was $405.0 million, as compared to $236.3 million for the year-ago period. GAAP net income from continuing operations was $70.9 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, as compared to $14.2 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, for the year-ago period. Non-GAAP net income was $78.8 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, as compared to $29.0 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, for the year-ago period. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $448.7 million.

The strongest contributors to net revenue in the third quarter were the release of NBA 2K13, continuing sales of Borderlands 2, the release of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and catalog sales led by Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption. Catalog sales accounted for 22% of Non-GAAP net revenue. Revenue from digitally delivered content grew 244% year-over-year and accounted for 23% of Non-GAAP net revenue, driven by offerings for the Borderlands franchise – particularly digital sales of Borderlands 2 and its add-on content, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and NBA 2K13.

Management Comments

“Take-Two’s positive business momentum continued in the third quarter, enabling us to deliver growth and profits that exceeded our outlook,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two. “Our results benefited from the record-breaking launch of NBA 2K13, along with continued strong demand for Borderlands 2, the successful launch of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and robust holiday sales of our catalog and growing portfolio of digitally delivered offerings. With consumer anticipation building for the launches of BioShock Infinite and Grand Theft Auto V, we are well positioned for a solid finish to fiscal year 2013 and substantial revenue and earnings growth in fiscal year 2014.

“I am also pleased to report that our Board of Directors has authorized the Company to return capital to shareholders through the repurchase of its common stock. Given our strong balance sheet and favorable business outlook in both the short and long-term, we have ample capital to pursue a variety of investment opportunities.”

Business and Product Highlights

Since October 1, 2012:

Rockstar Games:

• Released Rockstar Games Collection: Edition 1. This box set features four of the most critically acclaimed titles of the current console generation, including Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City and Midnight Club: Los Angeles Complete Edition.
• Released Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for a wide range of iOS and Android devices to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of one of the highest-rated and top-selling games of all time for the PlayStation 2.*
• Announced that it plans to launch Grand Theft Auto V worldwide on September 17, 2013.

2K:

• Released NBA 2K13, the next installment in its top-rated and top-selling basketball franchise,* which has sold-in more than 15 million units since the release of NBA 2K11 in October 2010. NBA 2K13 received critical acclaim, achieved franchise record-setting first week sales, and has sold-in nearly 4.5 million units to date. The title is being supported by the new NBA 2K Everywhere offerings, which gives fans the opportunity to experience NBA 2K virtually anywhere via an all-new mobile companion app, a social game on Facebook, and a full-featured mobile version of NBA 2K13.
• Launched XCOM: Enemy Unknown, reintroducing one of the greatest video game franchises of all time. The title is a critical and commercial success, with strong digital sales and a near 90 average review score on Metacritic. 2K has released two downloadable add-on content packs for XCOM: Enemy Unknown and has additional content planned for later this year.
• Launched its holiday lineup of family-oriented titles, including Nickelodeon Dance 2 for consoles and Bubble Guppies and Team Umizoomi & Dora’s Fantastic Flight for the Nintendo DS.
• Launched Borderlands Legends, an all-new action packed Borderlands experience designed specifically for mobile devices.
• NBA 2K Online launched commercially on the Tencent Games portal in China. Co-developed by Visual Concepts and Tencent, this free-to-play game builds on 2K’s award-winning basketball simulation franchise in an exciting massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) format.
• Pro Baseball 2K, an online baseball simulation game created by 2K in partnership with Nexon, entered closed beta in Korea in November. Pro Baseball 2K features authentic and true-to-life representations of the professional players of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), and is planned for open beta release in spring 2013.
• Announced that Major League Baseball 2K13 is planned for release on March 5, 2013. The title will feature Tampa Bay Rays’ Cy Young Award winning pitcher David Price as cover athlete and will once again be supported with the Perfect Game Challenge, 2K Sports’ groundbreaking $1 million competition.
• Announced that the MMOG which 2K has been developing in partnership with South Korean-based studio XLGAMES is based on 2K’s successful Civilization franchise. Under the leadership of XLGAMES’ CEO and MMOG design luminary, Jake Song, Civilization Online (working title) is being designed from the ground up as an entirely new online entertainment experience, which will initially launch in Asian markets.

* According to 2008-2012 Metacritic.com and The NPD Group estimates of U.S. retail video game sales through December 2012.

Share Repurchase Authorization

Take-Two also announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to 7.5 million shares of its common stock. The authorization permits the Company to purchase shares from time to time through a variety of methods, including in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions, in accordance with applicable securities laws. It does not obligate the Company to make any purchases at any specific time or situation. Repurchases are subject to the availability of stock, prevailing market conditions, the trading price of the stock, the Company's financial performance and other conditions. The program may be suspended or discontinued at any time for any reason. As of February 1, 2013, the Company had approximately 91.64 million common shares outstanding.

Financial Outlook for Fiscal 2013

Take-Two is increasing the low-end of its outlook range for fiscal year 2013 to reflect its strong recent business trends. In addition, the Company is providing its financial outlook for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2013 as follows:

Key assumptions and dependencies underlying the Company’s financial outlook include: the timely delivery of the titles included in this financial outlook; the ability to develop and publish products that capture market share for the current generation video game and computer entertainment systems; and stable foreign exchange rates. See also “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements” below.

Product Releases

Take-Two's lineup of future titles announced to date includes:

Conference Call

Take-Two will host a conference call today at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to review these results and discuss other topics. The call can be accessed by dialing (877) 407-0984 or (201) 689-8577. A live listen-only webcast of the call will be available by visiting http://ir.take2games.com and a replay will be available following the call at the same location.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the Company uses Non-GAAP measures of financial performance. The Company believes that these Non-GAAP financial measures, when taken into consideration with the corresponding GAAP financial measures, are important in gaining an understanding of the Company’s ongoing business. These Non-GAAP financial measures also provide for comparative results from period to period. Therefore, the Company believes it is appropriate to exclude the impact of certain items as follows:

• Net effect from deferral in net revenues - the Company defers revenue and related costs from the sale of certain titles that have undelivered elements upon the sale of the game and recognizes that revenue upon the delivery of the undelivered elements. As there is no impact to the Company’s operating cash flow, management excludes the impact of deferred net revenue and related costs from its Non-GAAP financial measures when evaluating the Company's operating performance, when planning, forecasting and analyzing future periods, and when assessing the performance of its management team. In addition, we believe that these Non-GAAP financial measures provide a more timely indication of trends in our business, provide comparability with the way our business is measured by analysts, and consistency with industry data sources.
• Stock-based compensation – the Company does not consider stock-based compensation charges when evaluating business performance and management does not contemplate stock-based compensation expense in its short- and long-term operating plans. As a result, the Company has excluded such expenses from its Non-GAAP financial measures.
• Business reorganization, restructuring and related expenses – although the Company has incurred business reorganization expenses in the past, each charge relates to a discrete event based on a unique set of business objectives. Management does not believe these charges reflect the Company's primary business, ongoing operating results or future outlook. As such, the Company believes it is appropriate to exclude these expenses and related charges from its Non-GAAP financial measures.
• Income (loss) from discontinued operations – the Company does not engage in sales of subsidiaries on a regular basis and therefore believes it is appropriate to exclude such gains (losses) from its Non-GAAP financial measures. As the Company is no longer active in its discontinued operations, it believes it is appropriate to exclude income (losses) thereon from its Non-GAAP financial measures.
• Professional fees and expenses associated with unusual legal and other matters – the Company has incurred expenses for legal professional fees that are outside its ordinary course of business. As a result, the Company has excluded such expenses from its Non-GAAP financial measures.
• Non-cash amortization of discount on convertible notes – the Company records non-cash amortization of discount on convertible notes as interest expense in addition to the interest expense already recorded for coupon payments. The Company excludes the non-cash portion of the interest expense from its Non-GAAP financial measures because these amounts are unrelated to its ongoing business operations.
• Non-cash tax expense for the impact of deferred tax liabilities associated with tax deductible amortization of goodwill – due to the nature of the adjustment as well as the expectation that it will not have any cash impact in the foreseeable future, the Company believes it is appropriate to exclude this expense from its Non-GAAP financial measures.

These Non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation from, as a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results. These Non-GAAP financial measures may be different from similarly titled measures used by other companies.

About Take-Two Interactive Software

Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a leading developer, marketer and publisher of interactive entertainment for consumers around the globe. The Company develops and publishes products through its two wholly-owned labels Rockstar Games and 2K, which publishes its titles under the 2K Games, 2K Sports and 2K Play brands. Our products are designed for console systems, handheld gaming systems and personal computers, including smartphones and tablets, and are delivered through physical retail, digital download, online platforms and cloud streaming services. The Company’s common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at http://www.take2games.com.

All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The statements contained herein which are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws and may be identified by words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "potential," "predicts," "projects," "seeks," "will," or words of similar meaning and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the outlook for the Company's future business and financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to them, which are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may vary materially from these forward-looking statements based on a variety of risks and uncertainties including: our dependence on key management and product development personnel, our dependence on our Grand Theft Auto products and our ability to develop other hit titles for current generation platforms, the timely release and significant market acceptance of our games, the ability to maintain acceptable pricing levels on our games, our ability to raise capital if needed and risks associated with international operations. Other important factors and information are contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, in the section entitled "Risk Factors," and the Company's other periodic filings with the SEC, which can be accessed at www.take2games.com. All forward-looking statements are qualified by these cautionary statements and apply only as of the date they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.