THQ stock loses 12% since WWE announcement
Publishers endure a torrid time as the valuations fall by up to a quarter in a month
THQ is facing a tricky pre-Christmas period on the stock markets as the company's share price dropped by a further 6.5 per cent in trading yesterday, bringing the total to almost 12 per cent since last week's WWE/Jakks Pacific announcement and over 26 per cent since September 23.
The company is set to release its Q2 earnings tomorrow, but investors aren't showing confidence in the title line-up as the industry gears up for a big sales push in the next few weeks.
The price fell from USD 7.42 at the end of September to USD 5.62 by the end of last week, and now sits at USD 4.89.
Other publishers also struggled yesterday, with Activision Blizzard dropping 4.3 per cent to USD 10.37 and Electronic Arts falling 1.3 per cent to USD 18.01 - despite the Dow Jones and NASDAQ both making modest gains overall.
In total Activision Blizzard has lost over 13 per cent since September 23, while EA has seen 13 per cent fall since the middle of October.
So far this year software sales have been mostly down year-on-year, although last month's NPD results showed a modest rise of 5 per cent for September - the first in six months.