Navarre Corporation, parent company of FUNimation and BCI, reported lower earnings for its fiscal 2007 first quarter, which ended June 30.   Earnings per share fell from 6 cents to 2 cents, a decline blamed primarily on expenses incurred in the acquisition of FUNimation.  Navarre's stock price declined after the report was released in spite of the fact that the company reported that sales grew from $141.3 million last year to $146.3 million for the most recent quarter.

 

Revenues from Navarre's publishing segment, which includes FUNimation, Encore, and BCI, were off only slightly dropping from $26.1 million to $26.0 million, but that might be some what understated since last year's first quarter sales only included 7 weeks of FUNimation's sales whereas this year's total reflected a full 13 weeks of sales.  Navarre noted that its Encore and BCI units posted net sales declines (BCI was 'modest') for the quarter, while FUNimation posted 'stronger than anticipated catalog sales and better than forecasted sales of Full Metal Alchemist, Dragon Ball Z, Samurai 7, and Desert Punk.

 

Navarre's Chairman and CEO Eric Paulson was also pleased with the progress of the FUNimation Channel, which is currently available to over 28 million households in the U.S.  FUNimation has just announced a deal with Verizon, which will make its anime channel available to customers who can receive Verizon's FIOS Premiere Package, an all-digital service that currently is available in parts of north Texas, Florida, California, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York.