THQ sales up, but outweighed by expenses

The troubled THQ posted its financial results for fiscal year 2012 today, showing the company has beat earnings estimates by a small margin, but continues to bleed cash in a bid to restructure the company.

The company has made headlines with gloomy forecasts and studio closures, but stock prices look to be doing well after close today as the new data was released.

Q4 sales of $184 million ($170 non-GAAP) were up from $124 million last year, and annual sales figures rose from $665 to $830 million.

Saint’s Row The Third performed well for the company, selling over 4 million units.

This was offest by increases in the cost of sales that left only $94 million in the year’s gross profit.

Operating expenses also climbed to over $330 million, which left the company with a loss of $239 million for 2012.

Non-GAAP figures were significantly gentler on the company, and did not take into account any of the expenses THQ sees as temporary, and therefore unqualified as representatives of its future trajectory.

This includes a sixty million dollar restructure, which may have been just the medicine, as Q4 operating expenses down by over $30 million compared with last year.

The restructure included the closure of THQ’s children’s entertainment division, and many studios the company saw as "unprofitable", and is intended to lower operating and sales costs by moving into digital and away from the publisher’s licensing-heavy business model.