Alliance Gaming posts losses as expected

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

Alliance Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas today announced a net loss, consistent with a pre-announcement, of $7.2 million or 70 cents per share for its second quarter ended Dec. 31.

The $7.2 million loss is after the impact of $1 million of special items. The loss compares with a loss of $10.2 million or $1.04 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Revenues of $114.5 million were up 10 percent.

Alliance announced last month it expected to lose 70 cents per share in the Dec. 31 quarter, badly missing Wall Street's consensus expectation of a 14-cent-per-share profit. In the quarter ending Sept. 30, Alliance earned 4 cents per share, missing analyst expectations by 71 percent. Alliance, in last month's announcement, said it had laid off 80 employees and was reorganizing its slot-making and slot-operations Bally Gaming and Systems unit. Alliance also announced plans to explore the sale of assets, including slot route operator United Coin.

Alliance today said that Bob Miodunski, chief operating officer, was appointed to its board of directors. This brings the total number of directors to five.

"Our December quarter results came in line with the expectations we announced at the beginning of January," Miodunski said today. "Each of our business units showed improvement in EBITDA and operating income (loss) over the prior-year quarter, although Bally Gaming and Systems still operated at a loss."

"Progress continues in the process of considering our options, including possible sales of our noncore assets," he added.