Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : E4L, Inc. (NYSE: ETV) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bruce gordon who wrote (1043)	6/19/1999 6:05:00 PM
From: Sol W.	Respond to of 1080

Does anyone have any opinions about the purchase of BuyItNow.com? Regards, Sol

To: bruce gordon who wrote (1043)	6/28/1999 12:05:00 AM
From: out_of_the_loop	Respond to of 1080

e4L Reports Year End and Fourth Quarter Results for Fiscal Year 1999 biz.yahoo.com LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 27, 1999--e4L, Inc. (NYSE:ETV - news) today reported net revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999 was $327.9 million as compared to $278.5 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998 -- an increase of $49.4 million or 17.7%. Net revenue for the three months ended March 31, 1999 was $74.9 million as compared to $91.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 1998 -- a decrease of $16.9 million. The Company reported a net loss of $43.6 million or ($1.70) per basic and diluted share for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999 as compared to a net loss of $56.8 million or ($2.31) per basic and diluted share for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998 -- an improvement of $13.2 million. The Company also reported a net loss of $9.5 million or ($0.35) per basic and diluted share for the three months ended March 31, 1999 as compared to a net loss of $21.3 million or ($0.85) per basic and diluted share for the three months ended March 31, 1998 -- an improvement of $11.8 million. Results of operations for the year ended March 31, 1999 included restructuring and unusual charges of $20.2 million; an extraordinary gain on extinguishment of senior debt of $4.9 million; the effects of a gain on sale of an investment in common stock of $6.5 million and a writedown of impaired goodwill of $11.3 million attributable to the Company's Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries that were acquired in 1996. Results of operations for the year ended March 31, 1998 included unusual charges of $1.9 million and a writedown of impaired goodwill of $14.5 million. EBITDA, a widely used measure of media and electronic commerce company performance, for the fiscal years ended March 31, 1999 and 1998, exclusive of the above items, was a deficit of $13.0 million and $29.1 million, respectively -- an improvement of $16.1 million. Stephen C. Lehman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, ''Since taking control of the Company on October 23, 1998, our new management team has been able to implement a comprehensive restructuring program and aggressively create the foundation for e-commerce and membership programs. We are pleased that e4L has been able to reduce selling, general and administrative costs as compared to the prior year by more than $10.0 million. Moreover, we expect to reduce our overall cost structure by an additional $10 million in our next fiscal year and beyond. ''We have focused on two primary areas as future drivers -- e-commerce through BuyItNow.com and the membership business through 'Everything4Less','' Lehman added. ''We expect further growth in both the value of our investment in BuyItNow.com and in ''Everything4Less'' which is currently adding 10,000 trial members per week. e4L is in a unique position compared to other companies with electronic commerce platforms whose market caps dramatically exceed their revenues. Accordingly, we think we should be attractive to both investors who focus on value and those who prefer growth companies.'' The Company's performance in the United States led the improvement in annual net revenue. For the current fiscal year, net revenue was $197.5 million in the United States as compared to $123.6 million for the same period of the prior fiscal year - an increase of $73.9 million or 59.8%. International net revenue for fiscal year 1999 was $130.3 million as compared to $154.9 million for fiscal year 1998 - a decrease of $24.6 million or 15.9%. The decrease in international net revenue was primarily attributable to the economic downturn experienced throughout e4L's South Pacific Rim and Asian markets. For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 1999, net revenue was $41.7 million in the United States as compared to $53.5 million for the prior fiscal year - a decrease of $11.8 million or 22.1%. International net revenue for the 1999 fourth fiscal quarter was $33.2 million as compared to $38.3 million for the same period in the prior year - a decrease of $5.1 million or 13.4%. The decreases in both United States and International net revenue were primarily attributable to e4L's restructuring efforts, the continued economic downturn experienced throughout e4L's South Pacific Rim and Asian markets, and a decline in European net revenue. Daniel M. Yukelson, e4L's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer stated: ''The reduction in fourth quarter U.S. revenue clearly reflects the emphasis on our restructuring efforts and revised business strategies, which partially contributed to the delay of new product and television program introductions as we focused on our cost reduction objectives and on our membership and electronic commerce initiatives. While net revenue was lower internationally, our Asian revenue, and, in particular, Japan which is potentially our most profitable market, improved over the prior year as our restructuring efforts and revised business model went into place earlier than in the U.S. market.'' Yukelson further stated: ''The write-downs for restructuring and unusual charges recognized during the year reflect our efforts to change the dynamics of the e4L business model through the leverage created by our television media. This new strategic direction has helped us to distance ourselves from the old National Media business model.'' The Company will conduct a conference call on Tuesday, June 29, 1999 at 1 pm Eastern Standard Time/10 am Pacific Time. Interested participants should call 1-888-942-9685 in the United States and 1-415-228-5038 for International calls approximately 10 minutes prior to commencement of the call. A conference call replay will be available from June 29 1999 until July 6, 1999 through 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time by calling 1-800-294-1003 in the United States and 1-402-220-9757 for international calls. Steve Lehman will lead the call. The pass code is ''Lehman.'' Investors will also have the opportunity to listen to the conference call over the Internet through Vcall at vcall.com. Interested listeners should go to the Web site at lease fifteen minutes early to register, download, and install any necessary audio software. A conference call replay will be available via Vcall after the call, and a transcript will be available approximately 48 hours later. e4L, Inc. is the world's largest publicly held direct response television and radio company, selling consumer products via television, radio and the Internet. The Company leverages this multimedia infrastructure to drive its e-commerce and membership programs. e4L broadcasts more than 3,000 half hours of television programming each week throughout the world, reaches 100% of television homes in the United States, brings its programming to more than 270 million television households in more than 70 countries worldwide, and provides television and radio programming and shopping over the Internet. It broadcasts the Everything4Less Show each week over network radio and simultaneously cybercasts the Show through broadcast.com over the Internet. e4L sells its ''As Seen on TV'' products via www.buyitnow.com, the e-tailing company it formed with BuyItNow, Inc. and Clear Channel Communications. Additionally, e4L's Everything4Less offers membership-based discount shopping. This press release contains forward-looking statement regarding potential future events and developments affecting the business of the Company. The Company wishes to take advantage of certain ''safe harbor'' provisions regarding forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (i) projections of revenues, income or loss, profitability, earnings or loss per share and other financial indicators, (ii) statements of plans or objectives of the Company's management or Board of Directors and (iii) other statements about the Company or the direct response or electronic commerce industries. The Company's ability to predict projected results or the effect of certain events on the Company's results of operations is inherently uncertain. Therefore the Company wishes to caution each reader of this release to carefully consider certain factors, including competition for customers, media pricing and access, market conditions regarding buyers and sellers of media, the potential effect of litigation involving the Company, the risks of doing business in the U.S. and the international marketplace, issues related to entering new markets and the electronic commerce industry, the inherent difficulty in identifying successful products, locating efficient suppliers of such products and bringing such products to market in a timely fashion and other factors, each of which could affect the ability of the Company to achieve its projected results and may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed herein. For a description of additional risks and uncertainties, please refer to the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission; including the Company's Annual Report and Quarterly Reports. (Financial Table to follow) NATIONAL MEDIA CORPORATION FOURTH QUARTER AND YEAR TO DATE RESULTS (In Thousands Except Per Share Amounts) Three months ended March 31 Year ended March 31 1999 1998 1999 1998 Net revenue $74,872 $91,839 $327,850 $278,474 Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization - $(2,147) $(2,329) $(13,030) $(29,118) (deficit) (1) Net loss before extraordinary item $(9,524) $(21,276) $(48,474) $(56,769) Net loss $(9,524) $(21,276) $(43,598) $(56,769) Net loss per share - basic and diluted: Loss before extraordinary item $(0.35) $(0.85) $(1.88) $(2.31) Extraordinary item -- -- 0.18 -- Net loss per common share $(0.35) $(0.85) $(1.70) $(2.31) Weighted average number of common and common shares outstanding: 30,587 25,364 27,054 24,904 (1) Excludes unusual charges of $20.2 million for the year ended March 31, 1999, and $1.1 million and $1.9 million of unusual charges for the three months and year ended March 31, 1998, respectively. Also excludes write-off of impaired goodwill of $11.3 million and $14.5 million for the three months and year ended March 31, 1999 and 1998, respectively. In addition excludes a gain on extinguishment of debt of $4.9 million for the year ended March 31, 1999, and a gain on sale of investment of $6.5 million for the three months and year ended March 31, 1999. To request previous press releases on e4L, Inc. or an investors package, please contact Suzanne Flaig at 818/461-6461. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: e4L, Inc. Bruce D. Goodman, 818/461-6510 bruce.goodman@e4L.com Dan Yukelson, 818/461-6413 dan.yukelson@e4L.com

To: bruce gordon who wrote (1043)	6/28/1999 10:31:00 AM
From: out_of_the_loop	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1080

Snap.com and XOOM.com Enter Into Electronic Commerce Agreements and Acquire Minority Equity Stakes in BuyItNow.com L.L.C. biz.yahoo.com Monday June 28, 6:02 am Eastern Time Company Press Release LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 1999--e4L Inc. (NYSE:ETV - news) and BuyItNow Inc., majority owners of BuyItNow.com L.L.C., Monday announced that NBC and CNET's Snap.com, the fastest-growing Internet portal, and XOOM.com (NASDAQ:XMCM - news), a leading direct e-commerce company, will enter into electronic commerce agreements with BuyItNow.com L.L.C., a Web Plaza(TM) of product-focused Internet stores housed at www.buyitnow.com. As part of their respective agreements with BuyItNow.com L.L.C. (''BuyItNow.com''), Snap.com and XOOM.com will join BuyItNow.com Inc., e4L Inc. and Clear Channel Communications Inc. (NYSE:CCU - news), as strategic partners in the recently formed BuyItNow.com. Snap.com will receive a 3.6 percent stake in BuyItNow.com, in exchange for providing BuyItNow.com anchor tenancy placements in a co-branded Snap.com ''Gift Shop'' and within a sub-area of the Snap.com ''Home Shop,'' and for related online media and marketing, valued at a total of $10 million. XOOM.com will receive a 1.8 percent stake in BuyItNow.com, in exchange for $5 million in online marketing and promotion, and will become a BuyItNow.com direct e-commerce partner. Chris Kitze, chairman of XOOM.com, said: ''A top priority for us is to continue to attract more online buyers to all the great offers we have at XOOM.com. With its focus on e-commerce sales of brand-name products as well as unique, hard-to-find items, BuyItNow.com will be a strong strategic partner for us moving forward.'' Edmond Sanctis, chief operating officer of Snap.com, said: ''One-stop shopping is a key component of the Internet portal experience, and Snap.com is always looking to improve the quality and diversity of the goods and services marketed to our Snap Shopping users. ''This agreement with BuyItNow.com will surely strengthen select areas of our shopping services, connecting users to more of what they are looking to purchase online.'' Stephen C. Lehman, chairman and chief executive officer of e4L and BuyItNow.com L.L.C.'s chairman, said: ''We are pleased and gratified that XOOM.com and Snap.com, two of the hottest companies in the e-commerce arena, have respectively joined our alliance to build BuyItNow.com into one of the best-recognized e-tailers on the Web. ''We believe they are a perfect match for BuyItNow.com and an excellent addition to its growth and presence. The powerful combined media forces of e4L, Clear Channel, XOOM.com and Snap.com will help BuyItNow.com attain high visibility, enabling it to stand out as a leading e-tailer.'' Anthony C. Link, president and CEO of BuyItNow.com L.L.C., said: ''We at BuyItNow.com, are committed to making our site the No. 1 online shopping destination of choice. ''These new relationships with XOOM.com and Snap.com will play an instrumental role towards maintaining and expanding our existing customer base, while allowing us yet another vehicle for branding and marketing BuyItNow.com. Our alliances with e4L, Clear Channel and now, XOOM.com and Snap.com will allow us to create and retain the market presence necessary to stay ahead of leading e-commerce competitors.'' The percentage ownership of the new company will be as follows: e4L will own 48.7 percent of the new company; BuyItNow Inc. will own 41.4 percent; Clear Channel will own 4.5 percent; Snap.com will own 3.6 percent; and XOOM.com will own 1.8 percent. About XOOM.com XOOM.com (www.XOOM.com) offers consumers high-quality, free services over the Web, including homepage building, chat rooms, message boards, HTML e-mail, online greeting cards, a Web page counter, clip art and downloadable software. XOOM.com has pioneered direct e-commerce on the Internet by targeting its members with product and service offers relevant to their needs and interests. To date, the company has attracted more than 8.4 million members, and according to the May 1999 rankings from Media Metrix, was the 13th most visited site on the entire Web. XOOM.com, which was founded in September 1996, has headquarters in San Francisco and offices in New York and Paris. About Snap.com Snap.com, the Internet portal service company from NBC and CNET (NASDAQ:CNET - news), operates the Snap.com flagship portal service (http://www.snap.com) and the newly launched Snap.com For Higher-Speed Users (http://speed.snap.com), the first-ever service of its kind. Snap.com's Internet portal services offer users powerful ways to organize and find anything on the Internet. Snap.com's Internet portal services feature content from more than 100 leading Web publishers and are distributed by more than 70 leading Internet Service Providers, telephone and communications companies, PC manufacturers and third-party marketers. At the heart of Snap.com's portal services is a directory of Web sites and more than 500 resource centers, built by a team of editors and reviewers to ensure quality, freshness and usefulness. Users may either search the Snap directory by using keywords, or browse through the directory's 16 topic categories. Snap.com, the fastest-growing Internet portal, is slated to be merged with several NBC Internet assets and XOOM.com, the fastest-growing community-based site on the Web and a leading direct e-commerce services company, to form the seventh-largest Internet site and the first publicly traded Internet company integrated with a major broadcaster. The new company, to be called NBC Internet (NBCi), will use Snap.com as its umbrella consumer brand, integrating broadcast, portal and e-commerce services. According to Media Metrix, Snap.com currently has more than 8.87 million unique users per month and XOOM.com has more than 8.95 million users per month. About BuyItNow.com BuyItNow.com features thousands of brand-name products as well as unique, hard-to-find items. Ten stores are currently open, with five additional stores to be launched systematically over the next few months. The new company may also acquire additional electronic commerce assets through mergers, acquisitions and strategic joint ventures. The site is particularly acclaimed for its customer-friendly online experience, which includes ''store managers'' or ''e-reps'' who are highly-trained product specialists to find and explain products; specialists in computer hardware, software and the Internet to help with any online shopping problems, and fast turnaround of customer delivery. The ''stores'' in its Web Plaza(TM) include: -- ElectronicCentral.com (cameras, security systems, stereos, etc.) -- ForAKid.com (arts and crafts, preschool, stuffed animals, toys, etc.) -- ForTheKitchen.com (bakeware, cookbooks, cutlery, gourmet gadgets, etc.) -- Gift-O-Rama.com (cigars, collector items, games, personal care, etc.) -- HouseDecor.com (candles, Christmas, clocks, lamps, vases, etc.) -- OutsideLiving.com (barbecues, landscaping tools, furniture, etc.) -- Tooling Around (automotive, cordless tools, power tools, etc.) -- YourHomeCenter.com (bath fixtures, ceiling fans, heaters, lighting, etc.) -- Completeluxury.com (upscale, unique and hard-to-find items, etc.) -- As Seen On TV (e4L's exclusive As Seen On TV products) About Clear Channel Communications Clear Channel Communications is a globally diversified media and outdoor advertising company and is a world leader in out-of-home media. Including all pending acquisitions, the company operates, or is affiliated with, 625 radio stations, 19 television stations and approximately 302,000 outdoor advertising displays in 26 countries worldwide. The company also owns 29 percent of Heftel Broadcasting Corp. (NASDAQ:HBCCA - news), the largest Spanish-language radio broadcaster in the United States. The Company's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ''CCU.'' About e4L e4L is the world's largest publicly held direct-response transactional television company, selling consumer products via television, radio and the Internet. The company uses this multimedia infrastructure to leverage its e-commerce platform. e4L broadcasts more than 3,000 half hours of television programming each week throughout the world, reaches 100 percent of television homes in the United States, brings its programming to more than 270 million television households in more than 70 countries worldwide, and provides television, radio and Internet shopping services. This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding potential future events and developments affecting the business of e4L. The company wishes to take advantage of certain ''safe harbor'' provisions regarding forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (i) projections of revenues, income or loss, profitability, earnings or loss per share and other financial indicators; (ii) statements of plans or objectives of the company's management or board of directors; and (iii) other statements about the company or the direct response or electronic commerce industries. The company's ability to predict projected results or the effect of certain events on the company's results of operations is inherently uncertain. Therefore, the company wishes to caution each reader of this release to carefully consider certain factors, including competition for customers; media pricing and access; market conditions regarding buyers and sellers of media; the potential effect of litigation involving the company; the risks of doing business in the United States and the international marketplace; issues related to entering new markets and the electronic commerce industry; the inherent difficulty in identifying successful products, locating efficient suppliers of such products and bringing such products to market in a timely fashion; the uncertainty of the marketplace for initial public offerings and/or for mergers and acquisitions, and other factors, each of which could affect the ability of the company to achieve its projected results and may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed herein. For a description of additional risks and uncertainties, refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company's Annual Report and Quarterly Reports. Note to Editors: To request previous news releases on e4L Inc. or an investor's package, contact Suzanne Flaig at 818/461-6461. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: e4L Inc., Encino, Calif. Bruce Goodman, 818/461-6510, bruce.goodman@e4L.com Claudia de Llano, 818/461-6467, claudia.dellano@e4L.com or BuyItNow.com, Tulsa, Okla. Marcellus Taylor, 918/294-6000, mtaylor@buyitnow.com Holly Williams, 918/294-6017, hwilliams@buyitnow.com or Snap.com Robert Silverman, 212/664-2756, robert.silverman@nbc.com Frances Byrne, 415/875-7913, francesb@snap.com or XOOM.com Roger Maes, 415/288-2568, roger@XOOM.com