Activision: Hurry up and wait

With the ongoing stock options scandal, this has been the quarter of the revenue release, with companies delaying earnings pending investigations into how they divvied out stock option grants. Such is the case with Santa Monica-based Activision, which reported a 15 percent decline in second-quarter revenue, to $188.2 million. Still, that was higher than the $130 million the company had forecast in August. Aside from the options mess, Activision, like other game publishers, must wait until gaming consoles from Sony and Nintendo are released later this month (video gamers don't want to buy new games for old consoles). That will get tricky because Christmas is less than two months off. Stock was down almost 1 percent for the day, to $15.70.