Jupiter records a $22.6MM Loss for 3Q08

On the heels of the announcement of an agreement for Getty Images to purchase Jupiter Media’s image division, Jupiter announced its 3rd quarter 2008 results. The company saw total sales drop by 11% from $$34.8MM in the 3rd quarter of ‘07 to $31MM, this year. On an unusually brief conference call with analysts about the third quarter results, CEO Alan Meckler stated that the poor performance was due to wide-spread problems in the general economy. “...but we’re doing something about it,” he added, referring to the Getty deal. Beyond that, Meckler said he would have no comment about the proposed sale of Jupiter Images.
According to Meckler, the one bright spot for the images division came in the form of strong growth from subscription sales. These were more than offset, however, by declines in revenue from third-party distributors and from licensing of RF imagery. Jupiter’s Cost of Goods Sold dropped at a slower rate than sales, causing a decline in its gross profit margin from 58% to 55%. An increase in operating expenses relative to revenue caused the company to swing from an operating profit of $2MM in 3Q07 to an operating loss of $2.1MM in 3Q08. Accounting for income taxes, the company lost a total of $22.6MM in the third quarter.  Meckler discussed the On-line Media division where sales results were also mixed. The company has continued to invest in trade shows, which, while likely to lose about $1MM this year, are likely, he said, to earn a profit in 2009. Job-board revenue delcined, again, according to Meckler, due to the state of the economy. On-line advertising, on-line education, and traffic to the the company’s many B-to-B sites continue to grow.  Given Meckler’s silence on the issue of most interest to participants on the call, not surprisingly, there were no questions from analysts during the Q&A session.

Web: JupiterMedia.com

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