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MindArk Annual Report 2010

billairboy

billairboy

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The annual report for 2010 is here:
http://www.mindark.se/investor-rela.../documents/arsredovisning2010_inkl_vdbrev.pdf

Some first quick highlights:

2010 was a bad year with decreasing income.
In the first month of 2011 the income/player deposits have started to increase again.
MA have taken action to cut some cost and have decreased the cost in the first month of 2011.

The goal is to have the space online before the end of the second quarter (before june 30).

SEE have only paid the first payment of the total payment for Planet Calypso, they have not been able to follow the payment plan. That makes me a bit worried about what kind of resources they have to develope Calypso and the MJ planet? :scratch2:

The bank project is canceled.
 
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All declining income of money to them means to me is we'll have it even harder.. or am I wrong here.
That's just the basic assumption of them trying to continue having a good income and financing what they do. Gotta get that money from somewhere.
 
billairboy said:
The bank project is canceled.
Click to expand...

The bank project being cancelled means they save 4 million SEK during 2011 too

EDIT: And some finished projects allowed them to reduce personel, meaning a few million SEK in savings as well

EDIT2: They are still planning on offering shares to the company but it got a bit late due to the economical crisis in the world
 
Nighthawk said:
The bank project being cancelled means they save 4 million SEK during 2011 too

EDIT: And some finished projects allowed them to reduce personel, meaning a few million SEK in savings as well

EDIT2: They are still planning on offering shares to the company but it got a bit late due to the economical crisis in the world
Click to expand...

I want to know where u was thinking to buy shares im really intersted in that
 
billairboy said:
T
2010 was a bad year with decreasing income.
I

The bank project is canceled.
Click to expand...

common knowledge lot of dev money ofc

but KIm|Mindark confirms ma wants to laucnh the bank in 2012. They pulled it because of the crysis which hits all companys first. So translation error ?
 
got to love google translate... "mind banking mothballed" lol

I don't have the chrome on this computer, can anyone copy the English translation here?

http://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general/browse_thread/thread/e3797f66ecf6048f talks about the fact that the copy/paste on the web translation in google translate does not copy the translated words, just the original.

If nothing else, print it to an english translation pdf file to put somewhere?

Staff reduction of 9 employees in 2010 resulted with worth of 2.8 million in 2011 and revolving 5.2 million? How much do these folks get paid annually? Wonder if the 9 are all the folks that were FPC but are now SDS?
 
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To sum it all up:

1) 2010 = sucks
2) 2011 = so far going better, with Space/Arkadia/Cyrene coming this year they hope it will go well economically.
3) MindBank project has been shut down. This saves money.
4) Going public with shares will still happen.
5) SEE has not paid as they were going to for Calypso (yet).
6) They hope to use the partnership with Ericsson to develop new useage areas for Entropia, such as social media.
7) 19% more PED deposited during Q1 2011 than Q1 2010, but due to the low dollar it is only +7%.
8) The equivalence of 9 people has stopped working at MA due to their projects having been finished. Savings are a few million SEK.
 
hojlund said:
Nothing to worry about, remember it is Marco running things there now he is just late as usual.
Click to expand...

Marco leads SDS, not SEE.

SDS is a subsidiary of SEE.
 
Nighthawk said:
Marco leads SDS, not SEE.

SDS is a subsidiary of SEE.
Click to expand...

SDS = See digital studios.

And as the news letter says, they were the ones not paying on time/able to pay.
 
hojlund said:
SDS = See digital studios.

And as the news letter says, they were the ones not paying on time/able to pay.
Click to expand...

Hmm it says "SEE" in a couple of places tho... I guess a clarification could be good to have on how to keep all the SEEs apart ^^
 
Financial report seems solid enough, and gives a pretty clear view of their strategy.

Now I know where SDS came from and why they exist. It was basically a compromise to save 9 jobs that had to be cut from MA/FPC. SEE needed a development team, and FPC being a subsidiary was a dispensable asset useful for planet partners who needed to create/train their own teams. Rebranded and sold.

I also know that the delayed systems were strategic, and what the strategy is. In short, the company is trying to weather the financial crisis and the weak US dollar. All dispensable projects and assets are being dispensed with.

They likely expect problems to continue for 2-3 years, and are preparing for that.

It's a sound strategy.
 
Magyar_Republic said:
Now I know where SDS came from and why they exist. It was basically a compromise to save 9 jobs that had to be cut from MA/FPC. SEE needed a development team, and FPC being a subsidiary was a dispensable asset useful for planet partners who needed to create/train their own teams. Rebranded and sold.
Click to expand...

Ehm, actually... from what I understand of the report, those 9 people and FPC are not the same.

It said something about 15 people being transferred to SEE... :dunno:

EDIT:

Quote from the report:
MindArk har under året haft i snitt 36 medarbetare varav 7 kvinnor. Koncernen har haft
motsvarande 78 anställda varav 14 kvinnliga anställda. I Mexiko är 16 medarbetare placerade.
Vid årsskiftet 2010/2011 avslutade alla 15 anställa i AR Universe sin anställning i och med
inkråmsförsäljningen i AR Universe (tidigare First Planet Company) som också innebar
överföring av alla anställda.
Click to expand...

Translation:
MindArk has during the year had an average of 36 employees, 7 of them women. The group has had equivalent to 78 employees, 14 of them women. 16 coworkersare located in Mexico. At the year end all 15 employees of AR Universe ended their employment due the the asset sales of AR Universe (earlier First Planet Company) which also meant a transfer of all employees.
Click to expand...
 
hojlund said:
Nothing to worry about, remember it is Marco running things there now he is just late as usual.
Click to expand...

Well, it shows that maybe SEE don't have the money to do any big and fast investment in Calypso anytime soon.
The good news in the report is that in 2011 maybe the number of active players have started to increase again and MA have taken some action to cut there cost. The investment in the space system and the cut down is probably one explaination why some of the old systems are a bit delayed.
 
mastermesh said:
got to love google translate... "mind banking mothballed" lol

I don't have the chrome on this computer, can anyone copy the English translation here?

http://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general/browse_thread/thread/e3797f66ecf6048f talks about the fact that the copy/paste on the web translation in google translate does not copy the translated words, just the original.

If nothing else, print it to an english translation pdf file to put somewhere?

Staff reduction of 9 employees in 2010 resulted with worth of 2.8 million in 2011 and revolving 5.2 million? How much do these folks get paid annually? Wonder if the 9 are all the folks that were FPC but are now SDS?
Click to expand...

About 82K $ per year and person.
 
Nighthawk said:
Ehm, actually... from what I understand of the report, those 9 people and FPC are not the same.

It said something about 15 people being transferred to SEE... :dunno:
Click to expand...

Who knows. It would explain alot if they had to cut 9 people and simply transferred their jobs over to a Planet Partners payroll.

Get the same work done on someone elses dollar.

Either way the financial strategy is sound, and to be honest its realistic. The crisis is not over. Im not even sure we've reached the halfway point. Its not a time for ridiculous spending. It's a time for pulling back assets and focusing on what your primary purpose is.
 
Nighthawk said:
2) 2011 = so far going better, with Space/Arkadia/Cyrene coming this year they hope it will go well economically.
Click to expand...

I don't think these things in themselves will help anything. MA needs more decay generators. It doesn't help the bottom line if a player moves from X to Y.

A targeted and persistent advertising campaign is needed. If MA thinks 'voice' is going to be a social tool that will drive new players they are sadly mistaken.
 
thoreau said:
I don't think these things in themselves will help anything. MA needs more decay generators. It doesn't help the bottom line if a player moves from X to Y.

A targeted and persistent advertising campaign is needed. If MA thinks 'voice' is going to be a social tool that will drive new players they are sadly mistaken.
Click to expand...

Mindark is not responsible for advertising at all. It's SDS and NDS who are responsible for that. Clearly they are not living up to what they agreed too... but team Arkadia has promised to have a sound marketing strategy in place from launch on. So I would guess that this will be the place where the new participiants in the Universe come from for the next 2 years. I think 2010 was a crappy year for EU participiants in general but 2011 won't be. :) Basicaly what was done in 2010 was necessary for sure but it had very little exiting stuff going on.
 
XeroX2 said:
Mindark is not responsible for advertising at all.
Click to expand...

If this is true it's probably not the best strategy. My local cable company advertises and they are simply a platform provider for the individual channels who also advertise.

If nothing else MA should be promoting the Entropia brand at the player level. I'm guessing PP are going to exhaust resources during development leaving little for advertising. SDS couldn't make their payment to MA. I'm guessing they have little for marketing.
 
I take it the 20% more programmers isn't included in this.

The recent changes and now this report, I can see why MA want to be on our good side all of a sudden.
 
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It's never easy to present a bad year, though im glad to hear 2011 is looking better. I hope that Arkadia and Cyrene can add their own playerbase but that is just hope. Cause the reputation EU has on other forums isn't that good (not meaning that they will market it only on other forums, just that the average gamer hangs on one forum or the other), but they will have my support!
 
SpikeBlack said:
I take it the 20% more programmers isn't included in this.

The recent changes and now this report, I can see why MA want to be on our good side all of a sudden.
Click to expand...

I think it is, i think that's the Mexico subsidiary, not sure tho.
 
Magyar_Republic said:
I also know that the delayed systems were strategic, and what the strategy is. In short, the company is trying to weather the financial crisis and the weak US dollar. All dispensable projects and assets are being dispensed with.

They likely expect problems to continue for 2-3 years, and are preparing for that.

It's a sound strategy.
Click to expand...

MA was working on the new game engine LONG before the financial crisis came along and keep in mind MA decided to buy a castle in Germany instead of putting that money to work on the now famous delayed systems.

So if you mean their strategy was to enter the German Castle market you are correct, though I do not agree that it was a sound strategy, otherwise I am not sure what you are talking about.
 
lilmoo said:
MA was working on the new game engine LONG before the financial crisis came along and keep in mind MA decided to buy a castle in Germany instead of putting that money to work on the now famous delayed systems.

So if you mean their strategy was to enter the German Castle market you are correct, though I do not agree that it was a sound strategy, otherwise I am not sure what you are talking about.
Click to expand...

Patience grasshopper.

Just because they were working on a product before the crisis hit does not mean they should finish it while the crisis continues. Work begins at extensive budgets. As those budgets change so must the pace of work.

This has been a public service announcement by this guy:

davidcarradine310.jpg
 
If I look at the summary figures of the years in the report ...

I can see that as Loot has dwindled for us ... their profit has done the same thing ... (it really is dynamic lol)

My suggestion is turn it around MA .. increase loot and your profits will increase..
 
XeroX2 said:
Mindark is not responsible for advertising at all. .
Click to expand...


And exactly why does MA have a marketing director :scratch2:

Some people actually think that's an acceptable situation... :laugh:
 
~CHOPPER~ said:
And exactly why does MA have a marketing director :scratch2:

Some people actually think that's an acceptable situation... :laugh:
Click to expand...

Lets specify. MindArk is not responsible for Planet Partner advertising.

They are however responsible for accrual of new planet partners, and extending development to other areas and sectors of business.

Marketing Directors can still do their job effectively if you are not the primary target of their efforts.
 
Atraie said:
I think it is, i think that's the Mexico subsidiary, not sure tho.
Click to expand...

I thought the Mexico thingy was support?




ABOUT THE MARKETING:

They mention in the report that they have attended B2B-events:
Games Connection in Lyon, Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin and TEDx in Göteborg/Gothenburg.


Other marketing has been limited since (and this is what they say in the report):
1) The platform conversion has been delayed.
2) This has lead to less functionality for the end users (read players).
3) This has in turn lead to less deposits.
4) The third point has lead to less money for marketing.
 
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