Eidos drops on share sale

May 29, 2001
Web posted at: 0910 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- Eidos shares dropped 7 percent on Tuesday after the UK's biggest computer games maker said it plans to sell shares at a discount.

Eidos, the maker of Tomb Raider and its cyber heroine Lara Croft, said it is in "the late stages of arranging an equity issue at a deep discount."

The games maker may sell about £50 million ($70 million) of shares to existing shareholders at a discount of as much as 50 percent, according to a report in the UK's Sunday Times newspaper.

Eidos struggled last year – when it issued three profit warnings -- as consumers delayed buying entertainment platforms and games, awaiting the launch of the next generation of gaming consoles such as Sony Corp.'s Playstation2.

The company announced last June that it wanted to sell itself and said it was in talks with a potential buyer, believed to have been French games maker Infogrames (PIFG). But no buyer came forward

"In view of the strong growth prospects to which the directors believe the entertainment software market can look forward over the next few years, they consider it an appropriate time to raise further equity capital, " the company said.

Eidos (EID) shares, which sold for as much as 1,200 pence in mid-December 1999,  were last trading down 6.7 percent in London at 297.25 pence.

Eidos enters drop zone – June 13, 2000

Eidos

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