Image Narrows Loss in Q1

Image Entertainment Inc. continues to explore various alternatives for its future following two mergers that failed to close. The Chatsworth-based home entertainment programming distributor and producer faces a tough retail climate but remains vigilant to enhance value to stockholders, retail partners and content providers, company officials said. “Our digital business has grown significantly as we continue to exploit many forms of content delivery to consumers,” said Image President and CFO Jeff Framer. “And we have made several feature film acquisitions that have elevated the Company’s presence amongst feature film suppliers.” For the fourth quarter ending March 31, Image reported a net loss of $3.3 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, on revenues of $26.6 million. For the same period a year ago, the company reported a net loss of $14.7 million, or $0.68 per diluted share, on revenues of $26 million. Image incurred a fourth quarter cost of $507,000 associated with the terminated merger negotiations with Nyx Acquisitions, Inc. The proposed merger fell through when Nyx was unable to finance the deal. In 2008, a merger with BTP Acquisition fell apart because BTP could not arrange the financing. In that deal, controlling interest in Image would have gone to BTP but Image would have remained a publicly traded company. Shares in Image closed up at $1.06 Mark R. Madler