UPDATE: Bank of America Reiterates Underperform, Cuts PO on The9 Limited; Firewall Shifts to 2013

Bank of America maintains its Underperform rating on The9 Limited NTCY and reduces its price objective from $7.20 to $6.10. Bank of America says, "We expect the launch of Firefall in China to be in 2013 rather than 2012 as the company has not announced its operation strategy yet. We also shift the game's contribution from US and EU by a couple of quarters to 2H12 as Red5, The9's subsidiary, will only roll it out at Anime Expo in US by end of June. Firefall is expected to account for ~61% and 81% of total sales in 2013 and 2014 respectively, making it the single most important factor in the company's path to profitability." NCTY closed at $5.50 on Monday.