TheStreet.com loss thinner than seen
Financial news site's unique traffic rises to 2 million
By Emily Church, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 5:35 PM ET Feb 10, 2000 NewsWatch
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- TheStreet.com on Thursday posted a narrower-than-expected fourth-quarter loss as the financial news site posted a 56 percent increase in Web traffic over the September quarter.
Meanwhile, new Chief Executive Thomas Clarke declared that he expects the company's U.S. operations will be "EBITDA-positive during the second half of 2001." EBITDA is pre-tax cash flow, excluding some fixed costs.
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Updated:
02/10/2000 5:06:20 PM ET
TheStreet.com said net revenue rose 30 percent since the third quarter to $5.1 million, resulting in a net loss of $9.1 million, or 36 cents a share, excluding charges that include a compensation charge related to stock options.
The results were narrower than the consensus forecast for a net loss of 41 cents a share, according to First Call. Including charges, TheStreet's net loss in the December quarter totaled $11.8 million or 47 cents a share vs. $4.8 million or 56 cents a share in the same period last year.
TheStreet's (TSCM: news, msgs) shares traded down 1 1/16 to 15 3/16 ahead of the report, which was released after the closing bell.
To be free
On Jan. 11, TheStreet.com confirmed intentions to restructure its site and move further away from a subscription model in the second quarter of this year. TheStreet.com, which competes with CBS.MarketWatch.com, outlined plans to make the main site free and to bring on additional paid-tier sites that include highlight commentary and IPOs.
"I don't see anything in the short-term changing the way the shares are trading," said Joel Krasner, industry analyst at First Albany. "The market's waiting for one more quarter to see how the restructuring is working out."
Krasner said he had been looking for a loss of 43 cents a share, and was keeping an eye out for an improvement in TheStreet's traffic, revenue and margins for the fourth quarter.
In Thursday's statement, Clarke said: "We believe the financial implications of this strategy will be very positive, with significant upside to our revenues and accelerated profitability."
Analysts said that with the restructuring, the company expects advertising to account for 70-80 percent of revenue with subscriptions representing 15-20 percent of total revenue.
Broken down, advertising and e-commerce revenue in the fourth quarter totaled $2.9 million, up 35 percent over the third quarter. Advertising represented about 55 percent of the revenue pie in the third quarter, according to Carolyn Trabuco, an analyst at First Union Securities, in a recent note to clients.
Using figures from DoubleClick, TheStreet.com said the average monthly number of unique visitors was 2 million, and its number of page views "was nearly 24 million."
By contrast, TheStreet.com in the third quarter reported 1.3 million monthly average unique visitors and 17 million average monthly page views, analysts said.
The stock is down 72.9 percent since going public on May 10, according to MarketHistory.com, dropping dropped 11 percent Nov. 5 after Chief Executive Kevin English left after a year on the job. English has since been replaced by Clarke.
To First Albany's Krasner, TheStreet.com's stock is trading roughly in line to more richly valued than its peers in the electronic financial news and data media.
cbs.marketwatch.com
Nice article from the competition.
Jack |
