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A sign is posted in front of Electronic Arts (EA) headquarters on March 30, 2023 in Redwood City, California. Video game maker Electronic Arts announced plans to cut 6 percent of its nearly 13,000 person workforce.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Shares of Electronic Arts headed for their steepest drop since 1999 after the video game publisher cut its full-year bookings guidance, due mostly to challenges with its soccer franchise.

The stock plummeted 19% to $115.86 as of mid-day on Thursday. That would be its worst day on the market since the dot-com bubble and the stock’s third-biggest drop since EA’s public market debut in 1990.

For the fiscal third quarter, which ended Dec. 31, EA said late Wednesday that it expects to report about $2.215 billion in net bookings, versus previous guidance of $2.4 billion to $2.55 billion. Revenue in the December quarter was about $1.88 billion, with $1.11 in diluted earnings per share, the company said in a statement.

EA said that “Dragon Age” and its EA Sports FC franchise “underperformed our net bookings expectations.”

“Weakness has been seen largely from the Global Football franchises,” analysts at Roth MKM wrote in a report on Thursday, calling the earnings pre-announcement a “big stumble.” They have the equivalent of a hold rating on the stock.

EA said it expects net bookings for the full fiscal year, ending March 31, of between $7 billion and $7.15 billion, below previous guidance of $7.5 billion to $7.8 billion. EA says net bookings include physical game sales as well as revenue from online games.

The warning points to weakness in the most prominent soccer video game franchise since 1993. It used to fall under the FIFA branding, but in 2022 EA’s deal with FIFA ended and the last two EA soccer games have been sold as EA Sports FC.

The company also said that role-playing game “Dragon Age” had 1.5 million players during the quarter, which was about 50% below its expectations.

EA said it expects Global Football sales to be down on a year-over-year basis, and said that bookings from online sales, or live services, would also decline in fiscal 2025. The company’s soccer franchise, accounted for the majority of the live services shortfall.

EA plans to release full third-quarter results on Feb. 4.

WATCH: Interview with EA CEO Andrew Wilson

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Chinese tech giant Tencent posts 13% revenue jump as growth at key gaming unit surges

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Chinese tech giant Tencent posts 13% revenue jump as growth at key gaming unit surges

Chinese tech company Tencent is a gaming giant and the parent company of WeChat, the ubiquitous social messaging app in China.

Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tencent on Wednesday reported an annual rise in its top and bottom line in the first quarter fuelled by accelerated growth in its key gaming business.

While revenue beat expectations, its net profit fell short.

Here’s how Tencent did in the first quarter of 2025 versus LSEG estimates:

  • Revenue: 180.02 billion Chinese yuan ($25 billion), versus 174.63 billion yuan expected
  • Net profit: 47.8 billion yuan, versus 52.2 billion yuan expected

Revenue rose 13% year-on-year, while net profit was up 14%.

This breaking news story is being updated.

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Sony shares rise about 2% in volatile trading following share buyback announcement

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Sony shares rise about 2% in volatile trading following share buyback announcement

A file photo of Hiroki Totoki, Sony Group Corporation executive, delivering a keynote address at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, on January 6, 2025. 

Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Sony Group shares rose about 2% Wednesday in volatile trading after the Japanese conglomerate announced a 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) share buyback and operating income beat estimates.   

Operating income for the last three months of the financial year came in at 203.6 billion yen, beating mean analyst estimates of 192.2 billion yen, though it was down 11% from the same period last year. 

In the earnings report, the Japanese-based electronics, entertainment and finance company announced a stock buyback of shares worth 250 billion yen. 

Sony also provided details on a partial spinoff of its financial unit. The company plans to distribute slightly more than 80% of the shares of common stock of the spinoff to shareholders of Sony Group through dividends. 

The financial unit will list its financial operation this year and will be classified as a discontinued operation in Sony’s accounting from the current quarter, the company added. 

However, Sony’s outlook for the current financial year ending in March was lackluster.

The company forecasted its operating profit to rise a slight 0.3% to 1.28 trillion yen, after flagging a 100 billion yen hit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Yet, Sony clarified that the estimated tariff impact did not reflect the trade deal made between the U.S. and China on May 12 and that the actual impact could vary significantly. 

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Samsung Electronics to acquire heating and cooling solutions provider FläktGroup for 1.5 billion euros

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Samsung Electronics to acquire heating and cooling solutions provider FläktGroup for 1.5 billion euros

A Samsung Group flag flutters in front of the company’s Seocho building in Seoul. 

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced that it would acquire all shares of German-based FläktGroup, a leading heating and cooling solutions provider, for 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion) from European investment firm Triton. 

Samsung said the acquisition would help it expand in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning business as the market experiences rapid growth. 

“Our commitment is to continue investing in and developing the high-growth HVAC business as a key future growth engine,” said TM Roh, Acting Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics.  

The acquisition of FläktGroup stands to bolster Samsung’s position in the HVAC market against rivals such as LG Electronics. 

FläktGroup supplies heating, HVAC solutions to a wide range of buildings and facilities, notably data centers which require a high degree of stable cooling. Samsung said it anticipates sustained growth in data center demand due to the proliferation of generative AI, robotics, autonomous driving and other technologies.

FläktGroup has more 60 major customers, including leading pharmaceutical companies, biotech and food and beverage firms, and gigafactories, according to Samsung’s statement.

Samsung said in March that its HVAC solutions had achieved double-digit annual revenue growth over the past five years, and that the company aimed to boost revenue by more than 30% in 2025.

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