Here's the actual text from the press release where Dougie says he quoted. Notice the minor adjustments Dougie made. What he took out of the statement was that BII did $13M in financing in the third quarter, not for the nine month period.
I can't believe that he would stoop toactually publishing text that is incorrect! Got you again Dougie, WHAT A JOKE!
>>>The company's balance sheet reflects the closing of three equity financings in the third quarter, with investors from Canada, the U.S., and Europe. These financings, from new distribution partner, Rogers Media Inc., from BID.COM's supply chain, and from financial institutions, provided more than $13 million in gross proceeds to BID.COM. The net effect is an increase in current assets from $2.6 million to $9.8 million, and an improvement in the company's working capital position by $7.7 million from the previous quarter.<<<
For anyone wanting to see for sure, here's the entire text. And for those that don't trust me (why should you), go to BII site and look under press releases!
Symbol: BII
Trading: The Toronto Stock Exchange
BID.COM 1998 THIRD-QUARTER REVENUE INCREASES 12.5%
FROM SECOND QUARTER
-- Transactions up 25%; margins up 250% --
Toronto, Ontario, October 29, 1998 --BID.COM International Inc. (TSE Symbol: BII), one of North America's leading
online auctions, today announced that 1998 third-quarter revenue increased 12.5% to $6.3 million from $5.6 million in the
second quarter of the year. Revenue for the nine months was $13.7 million, up from $1.2 million in the same period in 1997,
an increase of more than 1000%.
Gross profit for the quarter increased more than 250% by $0.2 million to 3.2% of sales in the third quarter, up from $54,000,
or 0.9% of sales in the second quarter. Gross profit for the nine months was $0.3 million, an increase of more than 200%
compared with the 1997 period.
"The improvement in gross profit resulted from increased site traffic to Top-Bid auctions, the successful launch of Dutch
Auctions, as well as the introduction of new products and suppliers, particularly in non-computer related categories," said Paul
Godin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BID.COM International. "We fully believe the trend in margin improvement is
sustainable now that we have achieved critical mass and are able to manage balanced growth in revenues and margins."
"We're beginning to see evidence of our forecasted economies-of-scale -- achieving our growth in revenues and gross profits
with a reduction in marketing and operating costs. We have been able to reduce our primary operating expense of advertising
and promotion, both in gross dollar terms and as a percent of sales, from 61% to 53% of sales. While other operating
expenses held constant at 26% of sales, actual expenditures decreased net of $170,000 in non-cash foreign exchange
recognition. Significant reductions in expenses will occur going forward as we start driving the business to positive cashflow
rather than building revenues at the expense of profits," Mr. Godin said.
Net losses for the quarter declined marginally from $4.83 million to $4.79 million and were reduced as a percentage of sales
from 86.4% to 76.2%.
The company's balance sheet reflects the closing of three equity financings in the third quarter, with investors from Canada, the
U.S., and Europe. These financings, from new distribution partner, Rogers Media Inc., from BID.COM's supply chain, and
from financial institutions, provided more than $13 million in gross proceeds to BID.COM. The net effect is an increase in
current assets from $2.6 million to $9.8 million, and an improvement in the company's working capital position by $7.7 million
from the previous quarter.
"Our fourth quarter is proceeding according to plan," Mr. Godin said. "Now that we are gaining critical mass in site traffic, we
anticipate further increases in revenues and margins, while reducing marketing expenses and maintaining operating costs at a
relatively constant rate. The economies-of-scale which form the cornerstone of our business model will become increasingly
more evident going forward. There is still substantial capacity in our current configuration and it is not expensive to scale at this
point."
As announced yesterday, the company has secured the URL www. dutchauction.com, in the belief that the declining price
auction format should capture a meaningful share of the forecast $50+ billion online auction industry by 2002. The Dutch
Auction is proving to be more effective in a number of product categories than Top Bid Auctions. Specifically, BID.COM
believes that the Dutch Auction will prove to be a superior format for liquidation opportunities and business-to-business
commodity transactions.
Earlier this month, the company also launched Bid Buddy™ and Bid Search™. These leading-edge technology tools automate
key functions of the online bidding process.
"In its first day of operation, more than 50% of our bid activity was generated by Bid Buddy, confirming our belief that it is an
effective tool that eliminates the need for customers to be physically present at auctions," said Jeff Lymburner, President,
BID.COM International. "The ability to place absentee bids through an intelligent agent, requiring only a single mouse click to
implement, greatly increases the accessibility of our online auctions to the marketplace. Bid Buddy is technologically superior to
existing agents offered within the online auction sector, and we believe it to be the most user-friendly agent currently available
on the Net."
As previously announced, on the distribution front, BID.COM closed the largest e-commerce content deal in Canadian
history, valued at over $6 million during the initial term, with Rogers Media Inc. As part of the agreement, site traffic will be
stimulated by a media campaign across a number of Rogers' properties, which include print, radio, television and the Internet,
as well as a committed advertising spend on non-Rogers properties. With the launch expected in the fourth quarter, the
company expects that BID.COM will become a household name in Canada by year-end, and be on target to assume the
dominant online auction position in Canada.
According to Mr. Godin, the alliance has significant strategic importance for the company. "It was negotiated as a content
license at nominal incremental cost to BID.COM and includes a substantial up-front payment from a licensee that is
responsible for driving site traffic. As well, it provides for an ongoing profit-sharing partnership."
BID.COM continues to make excellent progress in all aspects of its operations and financial performance. The company is
committed to being the technological leader in online auctions and now offers its unique auction platform for license. It has
created an easily integrated, fully year 2000-compliant system, which is capable of running many concurrent rising price
auctions, falling price auctions and static priced e-commerce transactions, imbedded with state-of-the-art bidding and search
agents. The technology has proven its scalability to many thousands of simultaneous users, its adaptability to multiple countries
and currencies, its assembly line operational efficiency, and its plug and play user interface. BID.COM will provide licensees
with stand-alone turnkey installations on client servers as well as custom-branded applications from BID.COM's servers.
BID.COM International Inc. (formerly known as Internet Liquidators International Inc.) was founded in 1995 and listed on
The Toronto Stock Exchange in February 1998. With offices in Toronto, Ontario and Tampa, Florida, it is one of the
Internet's leading online auction sales organizations. The company offers a compelling, entertaining, and cost-effective method
of selling a wide array of goods and services over electronic distribution channels. In addition to its strategic alliances with
America Online, The Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, and Rogers Media Inc., the company enjoys distribution agreements
with Yahoo!, Netscape, Metacrawler, and more recently with ComputerShopper.com, a Ziff-Davis property. BID.COM is
strategically positioned to leverage its technological leadership by offering the pre-eminent online auction platform for license to
business-to-business markets and for distribution through broadband/cable media.
Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking. Such forward-looking statements regard BID.COM International
Inc.'s future performance and involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will
prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Risk
factors are listed from time to time in BID.COM's public disclosure documents filed with The Toronto Stock Exchange and
provincial securities commissions. BID.COM assumes no obligation to update information contained in this news release. |
