Dow Jones Newswires Broke Activision Earnings Embargo, Published Erroneous Revenue Headline
May 03 2018 - 08:16PM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford
Dow Jones Newswires prematurely published headlines on
Activision Blizzard Inc.'s quarterly earnings ahead of a Thursday
afternoon embargo, including an incorrect revenue figure that the
company blamed for a significant drop in its stock price.
Activision shares fell as much as 6% after the headline error
but later recovered some of the loss when the company posted record
revenue and earnings that beat expectations. Shares closed Thursday
down 2.3% at $66.82.
"We regret our error as well as inadvertently breaking the
embargo," Dow Jones said in a statement. "We have issued a
correction and are reviewing our processes."
Activision addressed the early release and wrong revenue figure
on its regularly scheduled conference call with analysts, saying it
was an "extraordinary error" that resulted in volatility in its
stock.
Starting at 1:05 p.m. EDT, Dow Jones Newswires, the professional
business information service operated by The Wall Street Journal's
publisher, sent out three pieces of information: the company's
first-quarter profit, earnings per share and an incorrect figure
that mistakenly cited a year-earlier revenue of $1.7 billion.
Activision said in the embargoed release it generated $1.97 billion
of revenue in the first quarter.
Trading in Activision's shares was then halted around 2:14 p.m.
on the Nasdaq. Dow Jones Newswires published a correction around
2:30 p.m. Activision released its full results about a half an hour
later.
It is common practice for companies to provide financial-news
organizations with embargoed releases of their earnings
results.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 03, 2018 20:01 ET (00:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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