Owner of Lara Croft series in trouble

Slashes quarter of jobs

29 February 2008 15:41 GMT / By Katie Scott

The company behind the Tomb Raider brand has announced massive losses and taken action by slashing 25% of its workforce.

SCI bought Lara Croft-owner Eidos in 2005.

Despite the popularity of the games, it has reported losses in the 6 months to the end of December of £81.4m($161.6m) compared with a £17.9m loss a year ago.

According to the Beeb, new chief executive Phil Rogers has now cancelled 14 projects and announced 260 job losses.

He also announced plans to "revamp" the company at a possible cost of £55m, which will have to be raised by selling shares.

"Our quality has slipped below acceptable standards", the company said in a statement.

"Through disappointing game development and working within an ineffective operating structure, we are failing to realise the commercial return our creative ability."

In particular, analysts have pointed to the fact that the company has failed to deliver new games on time and also suffered after the collapse of takeover talks.

The games that have been postponed until the end of this year include the latest in the Tomb Raider series.

Shares in the firm plunged 22% after the announcement.