Redstone links games, theater firms

Midway gets loan from National Amusements

By BEN FRITZ

Redstone

Sumner Redstone is loaning money to Sumner Redstone.

Midway Games, in which the CBS and Viacom chairman is controlling shareholder, has secured a new $90 million credit facility with National Amusements.

In addition to operating movie theaters, National Amusements is an investment vehicle for Redstone, who serves as its chairman-CEO. Redstone's daughter Shari is chair of Midway.

News comes as Midway reported a weak fourth quarter performance, losing $29.7 million on revenue of $77.6 million. Revs were down 19%, and net loss was up from $2 million in the same quarter last year.

Those numbers are particularly disappointing for the company since the holiday quarter is usually the strongest for vidgame publishers and the one in which they make most of their profits. Neither of Midway's major fall releases -- "John Woo Presents Stranglehold" and "Blacksite: Area 51" -- were big sellers.

For all of 2007, Midway lost $97.4 million on revenue of $157.2 million.

Several titles, including "Unreal Tournament III" and the PlayStation 3 version of "Stranglehold," were pushed back until late last year. CEO David Zucker addressed those delays in a statement: "Now that we have overcome many of the technology hurdles that we encountered over the last year, we anticipate smoother launches as we release our strong 2008 lineup."

Midway's 2008 release slate includes new open world action game "This is Vegas," driving game "Wheelman, which stars Vin Diesel, and new wrestling and basketball games. In addition, Zucker said the publisher will be launching a casual games portal.

New credit facility replaces an existing $30 million facility Midway had with Wells Fargo Foothill.

Midway stock was down 9% Thursday at $1.77 before earnings were announced amid a broad market selloff.