Online-Billing Company CheckFree Issues Positive Forecast For '99
Dow Jones Online News, Monday, March 01, 1999 at 15:32
SNOWBIRD, Utah -(Dow Jones)- CheckFree Holdings Corp. issued an
optimistic earnings outlook Monday for fiscal-year 1999, saying it
expects to earn six cents to eight cents a share.
James Douglass, CheckFree's executive vice president of corporate
development, also said he expects revenue of $240 million to $250
million in fiscal 1999, ending in June.
CheckFree broke even in its most recent quarter, matching analysts'
expectations.
Speaking at Hambrecht & Quist's Planet.Wall.Street Internet
conference, Douglass said he expects CheckFree's pretax income to come
in at $4.5 million to $6.5 million.
Norcross, Ga.-based CheckFree (CKFR) develops software for the online
receipt and payment of bills, and to facilitate electronic commerce.
The company's goal, Douglass said, is to make electronic billing
transactions as common as e-mail and to allow consumers to look at and
pay their bills online from anywhere.
The executive said billers such as utility companies are driving the
growth in this market because it is much cheaper for them to conduct
billing over the Internet. By allowing customers to look up the status
of their bills on the Internet, for instance, billers can significantly
cut down on call-center and customer-care costs.
CheckFree currently has agreements with 41 billers, 18 of which are
already doing billing online.
Douglass said the consumer side of online billing is about a $4
billion market. The business side of this market is probably double that
size, he said, although it is establishing itself more slowly.
In late January, CheckFree unveiled a deal with a big Internet
portal, which analysts believe to be Yahoo! Inc. CheckFree wouldn't
identify its partner-to-be, and Yahoo declined comment on the matter.
CheckFree is widely agreed to be in the strongest position to lead
the online-billing movement. It already processes 70% of all electronic
consumer payments and says it now presents bills for 41 major companies,
including AT&T Corp. and Southern Co., the nation's largest publicly
held electric utility.
CheckFree also faces competition in Internet billing and paying from
a joint venture in pilot testing by three formidable rivals: Microsoft
Corp., Citigroup and First Data Corp.
To be ready for the rush to electronic payments, CheckFree, which
currently has 2.6 million subscribers, is adding capacity for another
one million within the next year.
In a separate presentation at the conference, Yahoo (YHOO) Chief
Executive Tim Koogle said the company's planned acquisition of Geocities
(GCTY) should close by the end of May, as planned, and should lift
Yahoo's total Internet "reach" to more than 62%.
Koogle said Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo currently has a combined
reach among home and work users of a little over 50%.
Yahoo said it recorded more than 15 billion page views in the fourth
quarter, or about 165 million to 167 million a day. The company also had
more than 2,220 advertising and commerce partners in the fourth quarter,
up from 1,700 in the fourth quarter of 1997.
In addition, Gary Valenzuela, Yahoo's chief financial officer, said
the company's revenue rose to $203.3 million in 1998 from $1.6 million
in 1995.
In a separate presentation, Lycos Inc. (LCOS) President and Chief
Executive Robert Davis defended the Waltham, Mass., company's planned
three-way transaction with USA Networks Inc. (USAI) and TicketMaster
Online Citysearch Inc. (TMCS).
Lycos shares have fallen sharply since the agreement was announced,
on concerns the company is not getting a fair deal. But Davis, echoing
comments he made at a press briefing in New York on Friday, said he
remains committed to the transaction.
Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
|
