FAST Third Quarter 2002 Results

Getting better..

[Rumbas]

Today FAST announced financial results for the 3rd quarter 2002.

Q3 Revenues of $10.4 million Brings Year-To-Date Revenue Growth to 28%
Earned Positive Adjusted EBITDA for the 4th Straight Quarter

Net loss of $0.7 million recorded, however;
- Earned year-to-date profits of $0.5 million compared with a net loss of $29.8 million in 2001
- Increased year-to-date adjusted EBITDA to a positive $9.4 million compared with a negative $10.8 million in 2001

Press release [fastsearch.com]

Guess they're getting better at doing business?

[ikbenhet1]

jep, at least they show the correct number of backlinks.

[GoogleGuy]

I tried to check out the stock price and trading was halted for some reason. Is that a normal thing to have happen?
newsweb.no [newsweb.no]

[ikbenhet1]

i don't know?
i'm not a stock kinda guy , just have enoug money for me.
And i don't think an average 'person is looking for stock values that badly, to judge a search engine for it.

[edited by: heini at 2:14 am (utc) on Nov. 6, 2002]
[edit reason] [webmasterworld.com...] / also slightly offtopic ;) [/edit]

[john316]

newsweb.no [newsweb.no]

trading resumed

looking for announcement

[heini]

Looks like something with the timing of the publishing of the Q3 financials on the webpage collided with the stock exchange regulations. Seems to be an etiqutte mistake - in a couple of hours we should know more.

[GoogleGuy]

I'm sure it's not a big deal. I was just curious; people here are such newshounds I thought someone might have seen this before. :)

[Tor]

Zero growth in revenue compared to last quarter and no reductions in operating costs is disappointing to Norwegian analysts and investors. For that reason the share price dropped almost 16% on the Norwegian stock exchange yesterday.

[Rumbas]

Eeew!

[heini]

Trade is continued. Looks very much like it was just paused in expectation of the presentation of Q3 results.
Don't worry, GG - nothing's lost yet

To me the presentation of the results don't look very surprising.
The company has undergone some serious changes over the last year. Cost reduction potentials seem to be exhausted. Now it's time to grow revenues.

Interesting is this figure: 80% of revenues is generated by corporate search, only 20% by internet search.

Corporate search revenues have been improved substantially compared to last year - internet revenues have gone way down. And that's despite the PartnerSite programs being rolled out.
At Fast expectations are the improved PartnerSite and the new distribution channels, as PT, will turn this trend. Not explicitly mentioned but probably a big part of those expectations is the new direct feed program.

The reason for the weak internet business given by Fast is the challenge of a tightening market in that segment. Which to me points at two factors: Fast portal partners with Lycos in the first place, have all been struggling hard for market share.
Second: Google's dominance of the web search market has reached new heights.

[vitaplease]

They are being paid heavily by Reed Elsevier for the Scirus.com.

[indigojo]

Probably a better move of Reed's using Scirius seeing as they spent a zillion buying a lot of crap sites during 98-2000, they are i think the world's largest publsiher.

[perkoch]

The Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv reports today that there has been a meeting between Fast CEO John Lervik and Larry Page of Google. Page is in Oslo on "holiday".

Page refuses to answer a question on whether Google is interested in buying Fast, but Lervik jokingly gives the price: 10 billion dollars!

[Tor]

There are not many tourist in Oslo this time of the year! ;)

[Rumbas]

Wauw. $10bn? Hmm you got to have some deep pockets to find that kind of money :)

I wonder what those two guys talked about. Either than the nice Norweigan sweaters, salmon fishing, oil and search engines ;)

Thanks for the info Per.

[vitaplease]

>I wonder what those two guys talked about

The body of the conversation, "exactly one level deep", "should inlcude", or "must include" this "flash":

Lervik was said to be teasing Page on Google's advanced search features.

[Tor]

Anyway; the Oslo-vacation of Larry Page resulted in a nearly 8% increase in Fast`s stock price! I wonder why? ;)

[perkoch]

There seems to be another reason for Page being in Oslo as well. According to digi.no Google is suing the Norwegian company SMSfun for registering the domain Google.no.

Google.no is selling sunglasses!

[google.no...]

[digi.no...]

[Tor]

So they misspelled goggle and typed google instead! ;)

[Rumbas]

>Google.no is selling sunglasses!

Google.dk is selling books ;)

[Tor]

Are they selling Google-books .....? ;)