By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks had another rough go
of it on Thursday, with GameStop Corp. stumbling following the
videogame retailer's quarterly results, and King Digital
Entertainment losing even more ground a day after a disappointing
IPO debut.
GameStop (GME) fell by 4%, to $37.33 a share after the company
reported a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $1.89 a share, on
revenue of $3.68 billion, compared with earnings of $2.15 a share
on $3.56 billion in sales in the same period a year ago. Analysts
had forecast GameStop to earn $1.92 a share on $3.79 billion in
sales.
The company said sales rose from a year ago in part because of
new game console releases from Sony Corp. (SNE) and Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT). However, GameStop's results also fell short of Wall
Street's forecasts as sales of game for older models of PlayStation
and Xbox consoles were weak.
GameStop also said it would close 2% of its stores this year,
and forecast a first-quarter profit in a range of 55 cents to 60
cents a share, excluding one-time items, with revenue rising
between 7% and 10% from a year ago.
King Digital (KING) shares fell another 2%, to close at $18.49,
a day after the developer of the "Candy Crush Saga" videogame
staged one of the worst public debuts of the year. On Wednesday,
King Digital went public at $22.50 a share, after earlier setting a
price range of $21 to $24 a share for its IPO. King Digital ended
its first day as a public company with its shares falling more than
15%.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell 43 cents a share to $39.73. New Chief
Executive Satya Nadella held a press conference in Thursday, in
which he debuted a version of Microsoft Office for the iPad.
Facebook Inc. (FB) recovered from its earlier losses to rise
almost 1% and close at $60.97 The social-networking giant bounced
back a bit after Wednesday's decline of almost 7%, which came after
the company acquired virtual reality goggles maker Oculus VR Inc.
for $2 billion in cash and stock.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) turned south and fell more
than 22 points to close at 4,151. The Philadelphia Semiconductor
Index (SOX) also fell almost 1%
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