Take-Two delays annual report

In a conference call with investors earlier this month, Take-Two released disappointing preliminary results for its 2005 fiscal year, citing mildly increased sales but reduced earnings per share. More-concrete numbers for the company's fiscal year, which ended October 31, 2005, were expected to be forthcoming, but today the company filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying it needs a little more time to get its annual report ready.

The annual report is typically released within 90 days of the end of a company's fiscal year (which would be January 29 for Take-Two), but the extension gives the company until February 13 to file with the SEC. Take-Two blamed the delay in part on complications associated with complying with new federal regulations set up after the collapse of Enron and WorldCom due to shady corporate accounting practices. The company also said it had discovered deficiencies in the way it recorded payments for inventory purchases and couldn't ensure it was accurately keeping track of software development payments.

Take-Two has said it is taking steps to fix these deficiencies, and it will outline those when it files the annual report. Furthermore, the company doesn't expect that the numbers in the final report, when filed, will deviate from the preliminary results it gave earlier this month.