Interplay Entertainment Sees Quarterly Loss

Interplay Entertainment Corp., an Irvine interactive entertainment company, said Wednesday that it expects to report a fourth-quarter loss of 15 cents to 20 cents a share on revenue of $30 million to $32 million.

A First Call/Thomson Financial survey of three analysts projected the company will post earnings of 3 cents a share for the fourth quarter and a loss of 20 cents a share for the year.

Interplay said in a press release that its quarterly results were hurt by a slowdown in retail spending as well as the lack of Sony Playstation 2 hardware availability during the holiday season, lower personal computer hardware sales trends during 2000 and foreign exchange transaction losses resulting from a stronger U.S. dollar relative to the British pound.

The company also said that it accepted a nonbinding proposal from LaSalle Business Credit to provide a new working capital line of credit and that it retained Roth Capital Partners LLC to assist in a private placement of its stock.

Interplay said proceeds from the deals, expected to be completed by March, would be used to reduce debt, replace the company’s existing line of credit expiring in April and provide working capital for operations.

Its stock lost 3 cents to close at $2.53 a share on Nasdaq.