Mad Catz reports mildly mad profits

This week, Mad Catz Interactive reported its earnings for the financial year ending March 31, 2007. The San Diego-based maker of gaming peripherals had a bit of a turnaround during the previous 12 months.

Though yearly net sales were essentially flat, slipping just 1 percent from $100.8 million to $99.7 million, net income--aka profit--was up. The year saw Mad Catz go from a net loss of $6.7 million to a net profit of $3.7 million. For the company's fourth fiscal quarter, sales rose 12.1 percent year over year to $17.2 million, thanks in part to the company's new lines of Wii and PlayStation 3 accessories.

During the year ahead, Mad Catz has locked down licenses to two exclusives for another next-generation console, the Xbox 360. "We have made meaningful progress on this initiative over the last several months having secured licenses to produce products to accompany the launches of Mass Effect and the highly anticipated Halo 3," Mad Catz' President and CEO Darren Richardson said in a statement. Richardson also expressed confidence in his company's continuing deals to make NFL-, NBA-, and MLB-branded sports accessories and to "further develop" bundles such as the Xbox 360 Arcade Stick.