Nintendo 9-mth profit down 41 pct, keeps outlook
TOKYO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.OS) posted a 41 percent fall in nine-month profit as sales of its DS handheld game player slowed and it cut the price of its Wii console, and the company kept a forecast for a first annual profit slide in four years.
April-December operating profit at Nintendo, which competes with Sony Corp (6758.T) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), was 296.7 billion yen ($3.3 billion), down from 501.3 billion yen.
Demand for the once-mighty DS began to slow as it entered its fifth year of production a year ago, and Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone and other smartphones emerged as alternative portable game machines.
Profitability also came under pressure because Nintendo cut the price of the Wii by a fifth in the second half of 2009, responding to similar cuts by Sony and Microsoft, which offer the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, respectively.
For the year to March, Nintendo kept unchanged its operating profit forecast of 370 billion yen, down from 555.3 billion yen a year earlier and versus a consensus of 361.1 billion yen in a poll of 20 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares in Nintendo closed up 2.5 percent at 26,320 yen ahead of the announcement, hitting a six-month high and outperforming the Nikkei average .N225, which rose 1.6 percent.
Over the past year, Nintendo shares have lost 17 percent, while Sony gained 68 percent.
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2010/100128e.pdf