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Dear Shareholders:
With a recent increase of more than 500% in the number of shareholders, questions to our corporate office have increased proportionately. This has enabled us to identify the "Most Frequently Asked Questions", and, for your convenience, we are providing the answers to these as follows:
Q: What new products is the company developing right now?
A: There are three games being prepared for release in 2010.
• LEFT BEHIND 3 - A real-time strategy game for PC
• Charlie Church Mouse - A Super Pack of all three Charlie Church Mouse games for PC
• Charlie Church Mouse 3D - All new Bible Adventures set in an interactive world for PC {potentially Wii and Xbox 360)
Q: Can you elaborate regarding recent announcements about potential mergers and acquisitions?
A: Unfortunately, we cannot. However, we can tell you that Lenox Hill Partners has provided us with a list of nearly 50 potential acquisition candidates and they have held and continue to hold discussions with several companies. Management believes investors may become disappointed if they attempt to buy stock based upon the hope of a potential acquisition, but this has to be balanced with the fact that investors may become equally disappointed if they sell their stock prior to an actual acquisition. Management does not make any buy or sell recommendation, but does want to communicate the company's true direction and comment that valuable time is being invested by LHP and the company to find good companies and have them join our team.
Q: Why doesn't Left Behind Games publish news releases more frequently?
A: Each release must be newsworthy, 100% factual and cannot be merely a sales pitch. The news must be about something that, in most cases, has been fully developed or come to fruition. The news we are reporting cannot be something we hope or believe will happen, but has to be a landmark event or development where we have made significant strides that have actually come to pass.
We are accountable not only to our shareholders, but to federal and state regulatory agencies as well. Therefore, the company will not fabricate speculative news items. As often as newsworthy developments that meet the stated criteria occur, we have, and will continue to put out news releases.
Q: How many investors are there in Left Behind Games and how many investors have there been?
A: Our records show that as of January 15, 2010, we have had a total of 7,092 investors buy shares in Left Behind Games. Of that total over the past four years, approximately 40% have remained as shareholders. Management believes this is indicative of significant shareholder support by those who believe that there is an untapped market for Christian video games and that our company is well positioned to maximize the expansion this new emerging market.
Q: Why should we invest in a company that continues to post losses?
A: Investors generally do not invest based upon the price to earnings ratio that is common to companies in the NASDAQ or NYSE. They invest in what they believe is the company's potential role in a growth market. Left Behind Games Inc. is pioneering a new market segment in the multi-billion dollar video game business. To date, no company has successfully generated significant profits by making Christian video games.
However, management believes our position is nearly identical to the status of the Christian music business prior to its rise to represent 8-10% of all music sales in America in the early 90s. Comparing our situation from another point of view, we can look at eBay and Amazon.com, both of which are significant examples of companies that bounced back to become highly successful. Post the dot-com bust, investors were not happy with the performance of these companies and were fearful about continuing to invest in them. Those who recognized the potential for these markets have prospered.
For example, EMI (the largest music publisher) has stated it distributes 40% of all Christian music in America and more than 50% outside the USA. Clearly, they recognized the growth of this market before other media companies. Obviously, shareholders who held on and continued to invest are pleased with the growth of Amazon.com and eBay, both of which eventually created multi-billion dollar online selling businesses.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers predicts that the video game software marketplace will grow to $21 billion a year in five years. If the Christian segment captures just 2% of the sales, that will equal $420 Million per year. With less than $3 million being generated by Christian video games today, and with Left Behind Games being the dominant presence in this market, management believes many investors have good reason to be excited about the prospects for future growth.
Q: How do I know today's stock price will hold?
A: The company cannot provide investors any guarantees. What we can offer is the knowledge that our committed leadership and talented staff have kept the company in business through a time that has seen the demise of even huge, well established companies.
Q: When will the company see profitability in the retail marketplace?
A: Management honestly doesn't know. Yet, we can say that our recent Walmart test results seem to indicate that consumers have shown significant interest in Christian games. It is therefore management's belief that building higher and higher quality products will eventually equate to more and more interest, and thus, increased sales. Management believes strongly that 2010 will represent the company's largest retail growth since the inception of sales in 2006.
Q: Why is Troy Lyndon the most qualified CEO for this company?
A: Mr. Lyndon is well-known as a video game industry veteran. He received the coveted Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year award presented by Merrill Lynch and Ernst & Young and is among the few video game industry veterans who has served one of the world's largest missionary organizations for more than five years. He is an industry innovator and patent holder. Of greatest importance, during the hard times, he invested everything he owned into Left Behind Games.
Also, Mr. Lyndon continued to work to keep the company alive during the recession by reducing the number of workers from 75 to only two employees, plus five others who faithfully continued to work without compensation. At the same time, he successfully raised the necessary capital to keep the dream alive during one of the most difficult times for emerging companies to raise capital in more than a decade.
Mr. Lyndon has, and will continue to, communicate transparently with investors even in times of adversity. His deep desire and motivation is to protect investors. Every private shareholder who has remained faithful and continued to invest in the company's private placements since inception has realized a substantial increase. Likewise, many have cashed out for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits as a direct result of Mr. Lyndon's efforts to protect investors and to reward them for investing their hard-earned money.
Today, under Mr. Lyndon's leadership, the business has 13 employees and more operating capital than it has seen in years. His efforts and contribution to Left Behind Games has primed the company to continue its growth in the emerging marketplace of Christian video games.
Q: Are there any assets of value which you believe investors do not understand?
A: Yes. We have been working to develop a solid church marketing program for nearly two years. Based upon a three-year plan disclosed a year ago, the company outlined how it could build this market segment into a $10 Million per year business. In the past year, the company has perfected a proprietary direct-marketing system that is resulting in a greater than a 50% acceptance rate from Pastors. This has three potential long-term implications that management believes are astounding and not fully appreciated by investors.
1) There are more than 300,000 churches in America. Based upon that statistic, the company has perfected a process that could directly market our games to 150,000 or more churches. Our strategy is to send the games for free to those pastors that agree to look at the games and then either return them or pay for them in support of Christian video games. Based upon our extensive statistical results, we anticipate more than 50% of these pastors will agree to those terms. Eventually most will pay the discounted price of $70 for our 10-game church pack. As we implement methods that work better and better, our success rate in collecting from those who keep the games keeps increasing and we are encouraged by the results of this marketing approach.
2) The company may test a new strategy designed to reach the masses of church members and attendees by equipping pastors to become grass-roots marketing machines. If each of 150,000 churches were to distribute 100 game launch flyers to their members in exchange for our FREE 10-game church pack, we could generate as many as 15 million direct leads as a result of pastor endorsements. Once we have established this grass-roots army, we can only imagine the potential impact of this marketing on retail sales. Keep in mind that pastors see our products as a valuable tool for ministry and, unlike numerous other Christian products, ours have now brought more than 1,000 gamers to faith as a direct result of our games' evangelistic website. For this reason, pastors are tremendously supportive of our cause.
3) The company has developed its own workflow system, whereby one distribution employee can manage hundreds of orders on a daily basis, creating Fortune 500 efficiency. The company plans to demonstrate this system through its first Online Seminar in coming weeks.
Q: In an earlier communication to investors, the company's CEO made a comment that penny-stocks are generally considered to be risky investments. Can you elaborate on this comment?
A: Some investors have taken the CEO's comments out of context. The CEO was noting that it is common practice and statistically imprudent to invest in the penny-stock marketplace with any cash an investor cannot afford to lose. This is a common and well-known fact among top financial consultants.
Q: I understand that the CEO has sold stock this past year. Isn't that a sign of a lack of faith in the company, or a cashing out of stock at the expense of investors?
A: Mr. Lyndon continues to keep the majority of his financial position in shares of Left Behind Games. He sold his stock to compensate for not having received a salary for more than six months around the time of his last stock sale.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The statements contained herein which are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws and may be identified by words such as "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "potential", "predicts", "projects", "seeks", "will", or words of similar meaning and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the outlook for the Company's future business and financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to them, which are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may vary materially from these forward-looking statements based on a variety of risks and uncertainties including: our dependence on key management and product development personnel, and our ability to develop other profitable titles for current generation platforms, the timely release and significant market acceptance of our games, the ability to maintain acceptable pricing levels on our games, our reliance on a primary distribution service provider for a significant portion of our products, and our ability to raise capital if needed. Other important factors and information are contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009, in the section entitled "Risk Factors", and the Company's other periodic filings with the SEC, which can be accessed via a link from www.leftbehindgames.com on our Investor Relations page. All forward-looking statements are qualified by these cautionary statements and apply only as of the date they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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