BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- NewsEdge Corporation (Nasdaq: NEWZ) today announced financial results for the third quarter of 1999. Revenue from its Enterprise and NewsPage.com business units was 19.4 million, an increase of 5 for the third quarter of 1999 compared to the third quarter in 1998. Total revenue for the three months ended September 30, 1999, including the Company's Other revenue consisting of business lines that are being terminated or harvested, was 19.7 million, a 1 decrease compared to total revenue in the third quarter of 1998. With Company investments in its NewsPage.com business, the Company's net loss for the quarter ended September 30, 1999 was 3.7 million, or a loss of 0.22 per share, compared to a net loss of 941,000, or a loss of 0.05 per share, during the third quarter of 1998.
"We have created two business units, Enterprise and NewsPage.com, Inc. to execute on the plans and strategies that we outlined at the beginning of 1999 for leadership in the business Internet market," said Don McLagan, Chairman and CEO of NewsEdge Corporation and Chairman of NewsPage.com, Inc. "During the third quarter, the leaders of both of our business units achieved major milestones."
"Since my appointment in April of this year, the first goal of our team has been to bring our Enterprise business unit to profitability by the fourth quarter of this year. Today we are announcing the achievement of that goal ahead of our target date," said Cliff Pollan, President and COO of NewsEdge Corporation. "Now we plan to leverage this solid position with our Enterprise customers into new services for their business Internet users and new sources of growth for our Enterprise unit."
"In September, the number of unique visitors as measured by Media Metrix has more than tripled compared to May when I joined NewsPage.com. Today we have more unique visitors than many other highly valued business and financial 'dot.com' companies' Web sites," said Ilene H. Lang, President and CEO of NewsPage.com, Inc. "We are now preparing the launch of a major marketing campaign, readying powerful service enhancements and planning on more growth for our users, our advertisers and our business."
Business segment results
Following is a comparative table of revenues and operating results by business segment.
(in thousands) Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended
September 30, % September 30, %
Revenue: 1999 1998 Change 1999 1998 Change
Enterprise $18,465 $17,052 8% $54,235 $49,404 10%
NewsPage 945 1,478 (36%) 3,101 4,529 (32%)
Total
continuing 19,410 18,530 5% 57,336 53,933 6%
Other 284 1,265 (78%) 1,315 4,819 (73%)
Total revenue $19,694 $19,795 (1%) $58,651 $58,752 0% Profit (loss)
before merger,
disposition and
other charges:
Enterprise $ 94 $(819) $(2,567) $(4,414)
NewsPage (4,058) (791) (7,958) (2,442)
Total
continuing (3,964) (1,610) (10,525) (6,856)
Other (152) 132 (224) (88)
Total loss $(4,116) $(1,478) $(10,749) $(6,944)
before merger,
disposition and
other charges As of September 30, 1999, approximately 1.7 million users had paid,
registered or been authorized for NewsEdge services, an increase in excess of 40 over the last twelve months. There were approximately 1,030,000 NewsPage.com users and approximately 670,000 authorized NewsEdge users. The Company counted approximately 1,450 enterprise customers, an increase of about 15 from the number of customers a year ago. |
