Stay Out of the Midway

Just a mere glimpse of Midway's (NYSE: MWY) trading price makes me nervous. It's in penny-stock territory; I could buy one share for less than I shell out for my morning cup of joe. To be fair, though, let's look at Midway's latest quarter.

Fourth-quarter net income came in at a loss of $29.7 million, or $0.33 per share, much wider than its net loss of $2 million, or $0.02 per share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue dropped, too, down 20% to $77.6 million.

You'd think these would be great times for video game companies, given the console upgrade cycle, but it hasn't always been all that evident lately. For example, THQ Inc. (Nasdaq: THQI) felt a bit anonymous with its latest results. Electronic Arts' (Nasdaq: ERTS) most recent quarter wasn't that thrilling, either. And of course, Activision (Nasdaq: ATVI) is expected to hook up with Vivendi (OTC: VIVEF.PK) pretty soon.

On the other hand, a quick look at Midway reminds me that I'd prefer being allied with a leader like Electronic Arts, with its portfolio of wildly popular titles, any day. And even though Take-Two (Nasdaq: TTWO) strikes me as more risky, it also has some very popular titles, like the Grand Theft Auto franchise and the much-acclaimed BioShock (and EA sure would like to snap it up).

In another interesting aside, Shari Redstone (daughter of Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Sumner Redstone, of course -- incidentally, he is Midway's largest shareholder) was recently elected Midway's chairman of the board. Midway also said it has terminated its $30 million credit facility with Wells Fargo Foothill and now has a $90 million credit facility with National Amusements, where Shari Redstone functions as president and Sumner Redstone is chairman and CEO.

A quick peek at recent SEC filings says to me that not only has Midway's financial situation been pretty ugly for quite some time (back in October, Fool contributor Steven Mallas pointed out that Midway's situation could get uglier, and it did), but executives have also been leaving at a rapid clip (not to mention the last chairman, Kenneth Cron, in December).

This sounds like a story that would be interesting to unravel further in soap-opera fashion, but as an investment? I'm not sold. You've probably guessed I'm thinking maybe it's best to leave Midway to the Redstones. I'd rather look for better opportunities elsewhere.