The company, which makes popular game software, also said Albert Pastino stepped down as chief financial officer, saying his departure after only two months was for personal reasons.

Shares of Take-Two have been suspended since Jan. 22 pending the results of an internal accounting probe of the company's past results and were expected to resume trade on Thursday.

"What the stock's going to do tomorrow I have no idea," said Mike Wallace, an analyst at UBS Warburg who covers the company. "What I'm telling people is there's no reason to jump into this thing."

New York-based Take-Two posted a net loss for the quarter ended Oct. 31 of $5.3 million, or 15 cents per share, compared with a net profit of $8.7 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales were $123.3 million, up from $108.1 million a year earlier.

In December, the company said it expected to report fourth-quarter sales of $138 million to $140 million and a net profit of 1 cent to 4 cents per share.

The company expects to report $280 million in net sales and profit of 90 cents a share in the first quarter ended Jan. 31. For the current quarter, its fiscal second, it expects sales of $125 million, with a profit of 23 cents a share.

For the full year, the company expects sales of $660 million and earnings per share of $1.63.

The average estimates of seven brokers surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call had been for first-quarter earnings of 70 cents per share, second-quarter earnings of 13 cents and full-year earnings of $1.32.

Take-Two attributed the increased guidance to strong sales of its hit titles "Grand Theft Auto 3" and "Max Payne," as well as a generally-strong market for video games.

EXECUTIVE CHANGES

It said Pastino agreed to serve as a consultant to the company's audit committee. He assumed the CFO role in December, replacing Chip David, after the company said it would have to restate results.

His replacement, Karl Winters, was formerly CFO of United Auto Group and worked for 10 years in Coopers & Lybrand's auditing unit.

On Tuesday, Take-Two restated almost two years of financial results, saying it overstated revenues by nearly $20 million in the fiscal 2000 period. It also said it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Take-Two had said it would review its figures to re-account for products sold and booked as revenue and then returned to, or purchased back by, the company.

Between Sept. 2000 and June 2001, the company received four letters from the SEC requesting information about its financial reports, including requests for clarification of its revenue recognition procedures.

Take-Two has previously declined to address those letters, or say whether or not they were the cause of the company's decision to review its books.

On Jan. 22 it postponed releasing results, pending an accounting review, leading Nasdaq to halt trading in the company's shares. They have not traded since.

NEW TITLES UPCOMING

Take-Two's "Grand Theft Auto 3" for Sony Corp, The company has been a runaway hit, topping the U.S. sales charts for two months and generating over 7 percent of Take-Two's fiscal 2001 revenues within a month of its October release.

has plans to release version for the PC and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Game Boy Advance in the coming weeks, and said on Tuesday it expects new titles in the franchise sometime in the Fall or Winter.

However, the company also said its long-delayed PC title "Duke Nukem' Forever" was not part of its fiscal 2002 guidance, though the title had been expected to ship this Spring.

But in spite of the strong lineup, Warburg's Wallace said he was still concerned about who was responsible for the accounting errors and what would become of them.

"They have a lot of explaining to do," he said.

Yahoo!

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002