The Las Vegas-based gaming equipment producer Scientific Games Corp. is re-branding with a new name and identity — Light & Wonder Inc.
“We are thrilled to introduce the world to Light & Wonder, a company that will build great games and franchises that offer players a seamless experience across platforms,” said Light & Wonder CEO Barry Cottle. “Our powerful new strategy required a powerful new identity to distinguish us and our unique offerings and capabilities. Our new name and identity are born from our winning strategy to be the leading cross platform game company and will inspire our people to make great products for our players.”
The transition was announced Tuesday, the day the company reported favorable fourth-quarter earnings results.
For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, the company reported net income of $99 million, 58 cents a share, on revenue of $580 million. For the same quarter a year earlier, it had a net loss of $84 million, $1.57 a share, on revenue of $480 million.
Full-year results for 2021 showed net income of $390 million, 5 cents a share, on revenue of $2.153 billion, compared with a net loss of $548 million, $8.69 a share, on revenue of $1.699 billion in 2020.
As a result of the results improving the company’s balance sheet, the Scientific board authorized a three-year, $750 million share repurchase program through one or more open market repurchases, privately negotiated transactions, including block trades, accelerated share repurchases, issuer tender offers or other derivative contracts.
While results were favorable, the company’s message also focused on the name change.
“Operationally, we are very pleased with the strong performance we achieved in the quarter which capped what was an outstanding year, as we grew double-digits on both top and bottom line and generated substantial cash flow while laying the foundation for future growth,” Cottle said. “(Light & Wonder is) a name that evokes the kind of feelings we want to capture in the work we do every day, excitement, inspiration, imagination and maybe even a little bit of magic and certainly a lot of fun.”
The company will start using its new moniker once its legal name change is complete in the spring. At that time, the company intends to start trading under a new stock ticker it has reserved, LNW, on the Nasdaq exchange.
Share prices soared after the name change was revealed Tuesday and the stock continued to climb Wednesday. At the end of Wednesday trading, Scientific shares were up $4.36, 7.6 percent, to $62.06 a share on volume of more than twice the daily average. After hours, the stock dipped 1.7 percent to end at around $61 a share.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.