News: Web Hosting Company, Netfirms, Sponsors Canadian Olympic Contender
Toronto, Canada - (Website Hosting Directory) - August 14, 2008 - Web hosting solutions provider, Netfirms, is sponsoring Canadian gold medal hopeful Karen Cockburn, a Toronto born gymnast, who began her career as a diver.
Thomas Savundra, President, Netfirms Inc. noted, ''As a technology leader in Canada, we want to support and empower our Canadian athletes from start to finish, be it in competitive sport or on-line.''
After learning that the trampoline was a competitive sport, Ms. Cockburn made the switch. In 1995, Karen injured her knee to the point where she needed reconstructive surgery and had to miss a years worth of training and competitions. Up until 1999 she had to compete with a brace on her knee. Despite the challenges that Karen has faced she still manages to give 110% and never faults on her determination to win.
Ms. Cockburn remarked, ''Netfirms made the dream of having my own personal website a reality. From domain registration to hosting, everything was done quickly and easily within minutes.''
Touted as the best Canadian thing to happen to gymnastics, Karen has done nothing to disprove this theory. She is an eight time Canadian champion, a World Champion in women's trampoline and the reigning World Cup Synchronized Trampoline Co-Champion. With already a summer games bronze medal in 2000 and silver medal in 2004, Netfirms is proud to help Karen achieve her dream of winning gold in the 2008 summer games.
Netfirms, Inc., founded in 1998, provides web hosting solutions and technology to successful small and medium-sized businesses, home office, entrepreneurs and individuals worldwide. Netfirms hosts over 1,000,000 websites, with offices in the U.S. and Canada. Netfirms was selected in 2006 as one of HostReview.com's Top 10 Fastest Growing Web Hosting Companies. Netfirms has been recognized by CIRA as Canada's largest .CA domain registrars, and will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary in September.
For more information about Netfirms, please visit: www.netfirms.ca.
Posted by editor on Thursday, August 14 @ 10:50:42 EDT (508 reads)
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News: Search Engine Portal, LookSmart, Releases Second Quarter 2008 Financials
San Francisco, California - (Website Hosting Directory) - August 14, 2008 - Search engine portal and advertising technology solutions company, LookSmart, Ltd., has released its fiscal report for the Second Quarter 2008, reporting a total revenue increase of 27% to $17.1 Million.
Highlights include:
-- Revenue Increased 27% to $17.1 Million Versus Q2 2007
-- Q2 Net Loss Per Share of ($0.01) versus Net Loss Per Share of ($0.09) in Q2 2007
Revenues for the second quarter of 2008 were $17.1 million, a 27% increase from $13.5 million in the second quarter of 2007 and a 2% decrease from $17.5 million in the first quarter of 2008. Net loss for the second quarter of 2008 was $176 thousand, or ($0.01) per share based on approximately 17.0 million weighted average shares outstanding, compared to a net loss of $2.1 million, or ($0.09) per share based on approximately 22.9 million weighted average shares outstanding in the second quarter of 2007. Net loss for the first quarter of 2008 was $0.5 million, or ($0.02) per share based on 20.5 million weighted average shares outstanding.
Ted West, President and Chief Executive Officer noted, ''During the second quarter we made continued progress in sustaining year-over-year revenue growth, and in approaching profitability. We expanded our base of search advertising customers, and we grew paid clicks served on our search advertiser networks. These results reflect the entire organization's continued focus on driving revenue growth and diversity, improving operating efficiency, and generating positive cash flow from operations.''
During the first quarter of 2008, the company classified certain consumer assets as Assets Held for Sale on the Consolidated Balance Sheet. The results for the current and prior periods exclude these certain consumer assets which are accounted for in discontinued operations.
Loss from continuing operations for the second quarter of 2008 was $40 thousand, or approximately break-even on a per share basis on approximately 17.0 million weighted average shares outstanding, compared to a loss from continuing operations in the second quarter of 2007 of $1.3 million, or ($0.06) per share based on 22.9 million weighted average shares outstanding. Loss from continuing operations in the first quarter of 2008 was $181 thousand, or ($0.01) per share based on 20.5 million weighted average shares outstanding.
Revenues from the Company's Advertiser Network were $15.7 million in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 30% from $12.1 million in the second quarter of 2007. Revenues from the Company's Publisher Solutions were $1.4 million in the second quarter of 2008, flat with $1.4 million in the second quarter of 2007.
Gross margins from continuing operations were 40% in the second quarter of 2008 versus 46% in the second quarter of 2007 primarily due to higher traffic acquisition costs (TAC) and line rental charges on the Advertiser Network in the second quarter of 2008 as compared to the prior year period. During the second quarter of 2008, the Company continued to manage TAC higher in order to drive higher advertising revenues and profit contribution in the Advertiser Network. Gross margins from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2008 were 42%.
Total operating expenses in the second quarter of 2008 were $7.1 million, which included $0.5 million of non-cash, share-based compensation charges. This compares to total operating expenses of $8.1 million in the second quarter of 2007, which included $0.6 million of non-cash, share-based compensation charges, and $8.0 million in the first quarter of 2008, which included $1.0 million of non-cash, share-based compensation charges.
On a non-GAAP basis, for the second quarter of 2008, Adjusted EBITDA (net loss before interest income, net, taxes, depreciation and amortization excluding stock based compensation charges and loss from discontinued operations) was $1.0 million compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.8 million in the second quarter of 2007.
An explanation of LookSmart's use of non-GAAP financial measures, including the limitations of such measures relative to GAAP measures and reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures where appropriate, is included later in this release.
Capital expenditures, including capitalization of internally developed software, remained constant at $0.7 million in the second quarter of 2008, compared to $0.7 million in the second quarter of 2007. During the second quarter of both 2008 and 2007, the Company purchased no intangible assets. Depreciation and amortization from continuing operations was $0.8 million in the second quarter of 2008 compared to $0.4 million in the second quarter of 2007.
The Company ended the quarter with approximately $34.4 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, an increase of approximately $1.6 million from approximately $32.8 million on March 31, 2008. This increase in cash was primarily due to the receipt of previously escrowed proceeds from the sale of certain consumer assets of approximately $1.0 million with the remainder being generated from operations.
Q2 2008 Key Metrics Performance
Total paid clicks increased to approximately 193 million for the second quarter of 2008 compared to approximately 120 million for the second quarter of 2007 and 152 million for the first quarter of 2008.
Average revenue per click (RPC) for the second quarter of 2008 was approximately $0.08, a decrease from approximately $0.10 in the second quarter of 2007, and a decrease from the first quarter of 2008 at approximately $0.10. The change reflects a shift in channels to reach search advertising network customers.
Traffic acquisition costs (TAC) of 61.9% for LookSmart's Ad Network increased from the 58.1% rate in the second quarter of 2007, and increased from the 61.5% rate in the first quarter of 2008.
On February 26, 2008, the Company announced the authorization of a stock repurchase program pursuant to which up to $5 million of its outstanding common stock may be repurchased through December 31, 2008. During the first quarter of 2008 the Company repurchased 801,092 shares of its common stock at an average price of $3.51 per share, for a total expenditure of approximately $2.8 million. The Company did not repurchase any additional shares of its common stock during the second quarter of 2008. As such, the Company currently has $2.2 million authorized for share repurchase through the open market at the prevailing market price or in privately negotiated transactions under this program.
The number of shares of common stock outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2008 was 17,035,390.
LookSmart is an online advertising and technology company that provides solutions for advertisers, publishers and consumers. LookSmart offers advertisers targeted, pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising and banners via its consumer web properties and a monitored ad distribution network; a customizable set of private-label solutions for publishers; and vertical search sites and web tools for consumers. LookSmart is based in San Francisco, California.
Posted by editor on Thursday, August 14 @ 10:35:17 EDT (366 reads)
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News: Web Hosting Firm, DiscountASP.NET, Launches US, UK SQL 2008 Hosting
Pasadena, California - (Website Hosting Directory) - August 13, 2008 - Advanced ASP.NET hosting provider, DiscountASP.NET, has launched as a new hosting add-on option in both US and UK datacenter locations, its Microsoft SQL 2008 hosting, available to all customers.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a major update to its enterprise database. Some of the SQL Server 2008 feature enhancements include new data types, such as geospatial data types and date/time data types. In addition, integrated full text search, Language Integrated Query (LINQ), sparse columns, and large user-defined types are improvements that will help drive next-generation data-centric applications.
Takeshi Eto, VP Marketing at DiscountASP.NET noted, ''One of our goals is to be an early adopter of new Microsoft technology. We are proud to be among the first hosts to officially launch SQL 2008 hosting along with a suite of SQL 2008 management control panel tools. We also wanted to make sure that all of our customers have the opportunity to access next generation technology, so we've made SQL 2008 hosting available in both of our datacenters, located in the US and Europe.''
With the launch of SQL 2008 hosting, DiscountASP.NET introduces new SQL 2008 management tools in their control panel, including an on-demand SQL 2008 database backup tool, an automated SQL 2008 database restore tool, and an automated Attach MDF File tool. Customers can manage their SQL 2008 databases with Microsoft SQL Management Studio.
DiscountASP.NET provides Microsoft Windows hosting, as a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. DiscountASP.NET is one of the first hosts to offer Windows 2008 shared hosting and was recently voted Best ASP.NET Hosting Service in the asp.netPRO Magazine 2008 Readers' Choice poll for the fourth consecutive year. Through strong word-of-mouth and their commitment to ASP.NET and SQL technology, DiscountASP.NET has become the choice for affordable enterprise-class ASP.NET web hosting.
For more information about DiscountASP.NET, please visit: www.discountasp.net.
Posted by editor on Wednesday, August 13 @ 11:30:36 EDT (439 reads)
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News: Yahoo!'s Right Media, Debuts Advanced Contextual Display Ads, with LucidMedia
Reston, Virginia - (Website Hosting Directory) - August 13, 2008 - Yahoo!'s Right Media, and online contextual advertising platform and meta-network, LucidMedia, have entered into an agreement to introduce highly targeted contextual display advertising.
The new capabilities, which first began testing in May, bring a new level of targeting for both buyers and sellers on the Right Media Exchange, helping to ensure that advertisers' creative display advertisements appear alongside relevant content on publishers' sites.
Bill Wise, General Manager, Right Media noted, ''LucidMedia's ClickSense technology will significantly help increase the prospective yield of a publisher's available inventory and improve an advertiser's ability to contextually target ads to relevant content and categories through the Right Media Exchange. We are excited to bring this capability to Exchange participants and look forward to working with the LucidMedia team to deepen the use of ClickSense across the Exchange.''
The agreement specifies that Right Media will support the use of LucidMedia's patented ClickSense contextual advertising targeting engine by buyers and sellers on the Exchange, enabling them, for the first time, to contextually categorize their display advertising inventory based on more than 60 vertically focused channels. The channels cover such areas as automotive, careers and jobs, clothing and apparel, finance, sports and recreation and dozens of others.
Publishers that choose to utilize the newly available contextually targeted advertising tags enable advertisers to more effectively target their inventory, based on relevance to their products or services. The ClickSense deep contextualization engine for advertisers and publishers was developed over nearly a decade to analyze every impression in real-time and determine true meaning of content at the page-level. Today's announcement follows several months of extensive and successful testing on the Right Media Exchange.
Ajay Sravanapudi, CEO of LucidMedia noted, ''Right Media is clearly a pioneering exchange and we are thrilled to extend the capabilities of our ClickSense contextual targeting engine to the buyers and sellers that do business through it. Contextually targeted ads can be significantly more relevant to users and thus more valuable to publishers, which we believe will ultimately allow advertisers to target their campaigns more effectively and drive improved conversions and return-on-spend.''
Marc Thomas, Chief Operating Officer of Suite66 added, ''As a network of publishers and advertisers involved in the launch, we have been impressed by the contextual targeting capabilities made available through the Exchange and believe that it will be an important part of our optimization strategy. Enabling advertisers to very accurately pinpoint available inventory and target highly relevant ads makes the process more effective and results-focused for everyone involved.''
LucidMedia is an online contextual advertising platform and meta-network focused on optimizing display advertising performance for advertisers and their agencies, as well as ad networks and publishers. Through its patented ClickSense contextual advertising and targeting engine, LucidMedia categorizes traffic from many of the Web's most respected networks and exchanges, providing advertisers with a way to more effectively target online advertising inventory and increase their return-on-spend. Formerly known as Entrieva, LucidMedia was founded in 1999 and launched ClickSense in 2004. Using the deep contextualization of its ClickSense platform, LucidMedia has created a revolutionary hyper-targeted display ad network. The LucidMedia Network is the first advertiser-centric ad network that can offer complete brand safety, real accountability, and transparency down to the page-level. Today many of the world's largest interactive agencies, Web advertisers, ad networks, and ad exchanges are relying on LucidMedia to achieve their advertising revenue goals. LucidMedia is headquartered in Reston, Virginia at the heart of the Dulles Technology Corridor.
Posted by editor on Wednesday, August 13 @ 11:25:40 EDT (411 reads)
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News: Web Host, Digital River's BlueHornet, Expands Client Portfolio
Minneapolis, Minnesota - (Website Hosting Directory) - August 12, 2008 - Global e-commerce and web hosting outsourcing provider, Digital River's BlueHornet Networks, has entered into new agreements with J. Peterman, Pacific WebWorks,
Anna's Linens and Coral Ridge Ministries.
Tim Peterman, President, The J. Peterman Company, a leading lifestyle brand delivering products, clothing and entertainment from around the world noted, ''J. Peterman is establishing a larger presence in the interactive marketing world with multiple commerce and content sites launching in the very near future to complement our existing jpeterman.com and petermanseye.com businesses. We need an email partner who can help us navigate our list growth and segmentation. We chose BlueHornet as our ESP because of its track record working with other retail and consumer brands to provide advanced segmentation that will support relevant, timely emails to consumers. We're confident that BlueHornet can help us accomplish our online marketing goals.''
In addition to using BlueHornet's flagship eMarketing Suite, clients like J. Peterman and Pacific WebWorks are taking advantage of BlueHornet's SureSend email deliverability enhancement platform. BlueHornet's eMarketing Suite and SureSend platform provide online merchants with a combination of high-tech tools and expert consulting services designed to assure successful delivery of email marketing messages to the inbox. Implementing SureSend along with BlueHornet's recommended lifecycle email messaging campaigns - an end-consumer centric approach to crafting and delivering highly relevant messages at the optimal time - can help clients achieve their marketing goals through higher delivery rates and increased ROI.
Tim Marusich, Vice President and General Manager for Digital River's BlueHornet business unit noted, ''The team at BlueHornet is committed to helping our new clients enhance the value they offer subscribers and build stronger customer relationships by sending highly targeted email messages. We can equip them with the tools and services they need to implement targeted lifecycle messaging campaigns made up of personalized emails that change as their consumers' needs and interests develop over time.''
BlueHornet Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital River, Inc., is a leading provider of permission-based email marketing solutions. BlueHornet conducts email campaigns for hundreds of top brands, including Match.com, Famous Footwear, 3M, GUESS?, House of Blues Entertainment Inc., Kyocera Wireless and Red Lobster. In addition, BlueHornet supports more than 100 resellers, many using private label versions of its email marketing solution. For more information, visit www.BlueHornet.com. About Digital River, Inc. Digital River, Inc., a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions, builds and manages online businesses for software publishers, consumer technology manufacturers, distributors, online retailers and affiliates. Its multi-channel e-commerce solution, which supports both direct and indirect sales, is designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as reduce the costs and risks of running an e-commerce operation. The company's comprehensive platform offers site development and hosting, order management, fraud prevention, export controls, tax management, physical and digital product fulfillment, multi-lingual customer service, advanced reporting and strategic marketing services.
Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices in major U.S. cities as well as Cologne, Germany; London, England; Shannon, Ireland; Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Stockholm, Sweden; Taipei, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; and Shanghai, China.
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