NEWS - Monday, January 27, 2003
David Wittenkamp Joins the 3DO Company
Goal is Profitable New Year as Turnaround Nears Completion REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The 3DO Company (NASDAQ:THDO) announced today that David Wittenkamp has joined the Company as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Wittenkamp will also drive the operations of the Company and replaces Bill Dully, who is leaving for personal reasons. The Company expects to return to profitability in calendar 2003 with strong revenue growth from new game releases, beginning next month with the top-rated High Heat(TM) Major League Baseball(R) brand. "Now that our turnaround is nearly complete, David is an ideal addition," said Trip Hawkins, chief executive officer. "We expect him to help us execute profitably on the worldwide delivery and exploitation of the strong product lineup that we’ve planned for release in 2003." Wittenkamp has an entrepreneurial operating background that includes co-founding two technology companies, one of which was publicly funded and traded in Denmark and which was later acquired by Ericsson. His career also reflects 15 years of experience in both small and large companies, in both the U.S. and Europe, including Motorola, IBM, Nokia, and Ericsson, although he has spent the last several years in the U.S. He is experienced in finance, accounting, operations, manufacturing, logistics, IT, business development, HR, and customer support, and will manage those functions in his new role. In addition, Wittenkamp is conversant in five languages, grew up in Europe, and spent five years in a European sales role with IBM. As a result the Company believes he will have a significant favorable impact on business opportunities and growth in Europe. Wittenkamp has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Copenhagen. "The game market is now entering a good phase, and I was very impressed with the Company’s management team and business plan," said Wittenkamp. "This is an opportunity for victory, and I will help deliver good results this year and lead us on a path of solidly managed growth and profitability." The Company has completed development of the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system and the Xbox(TM) video game system versions of High Heat Major League Baseball, and other versions are nearing completion as the Company awaits approval from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Microsoft Corporation to go into manufacturing. Significant retail purchase orders already ensure that the game will rank among the Company’s largest launches ever of a next generation game. The High Heat Baseball(R) game is getting rave previews from game industry media and the Company recently learned that an upcoming feature review in one of the major magazines will give the final version of High Heat a perfect score. "We will be in range of guidance for our December 2002 quarter," Hawkins said. "But the true recovery of the Company is keyed around the release of High Heat Major League Baseball next month. Despite softness in the Nintendo GameCube(TM) system market that has slightly knocked back our forecast, we expect good spending controls to keep net income in the March quarter in range of expectations. We have also made great strides on our other new games for 2003 and look forward to strong revenue growth and consistent performance throughout the year."Source: http://www.3do.com/
