Hickey – THQ has a 50-50 chance of going bankrupt

By Patrick Garratt

Janco’s Mike Hickey has told the LA Business Journal that THQ has a 50-50 chance of going bankrupt, based on “mediocre product”.

THQ recently announced 600 lay-offs in an effort to trim costs after dropping nearly $200 million in ’08’s final quarter.

CEO Brian Farrell has shrugged off Hickey’s opinion. From the piece:

“You have mediocre product and you’re running out of cash,” said Michael Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners Inc. in Denver, who put the odds of THQ going bankrupt at 50-50. “Not the situation they want to be in right now.”

THQ executives are scrambling. Chief Executive Brian Farrell last month launched an aggressive turnaround plan, slashing costs for next year by $220 million and laying off almost 600 employees.

Farrell dismissed talk of takeovers and bankruptcy as gossip.

“I know that makes for good print and sells newspapers, but those aren’t the kind of things we focus on right now,” Farrell told the Business Journal. “When the stock price is depressed, the naysayers can have their day in the sunshine. But we have a plan that we’re very confident will give us cash and return the company to profitability.”

Plenty more through there.