Joystiq

Following yesterday's public resignation of Midway CEO David Zucker (no, not that David Zucker), Variety crunched the video game publisher's numbers after media titan Sumner Redstone's acquisition of the company in 2004. At that time, Redstone said, "Midway is clearly a second-tier producer, but it has the potential to be in the first tier, and that's what attracted me to the company. You're going to see an enormous infusion of talent in the very near future." Some of that talent included designer Harvey Smith who had some less than encouraging things to say about Midway before unsurprisingly leaving the company last fall.

So how has good ol' Sumner's investment in Midway panned out? According to Variety, Midway's net losses since 2004 are "about $300 million"; its "revenue growth from 2004 through 2007" is a particularly unimpressive -3%; the change in "Midway stock value from the day Redstone took over through today" is a costly -79%; and the total loss in "equity value for Sumner Redstone" is in excess of $500 million, an estimate Variety calls "very conservative." With $8 billion in net worth, $500 million might not sound like much but, trust us, you don't get to be #86 on Forbes list of top billionaires by letting that kind of coin go. Let's see if Shari Redstone can clean things up.