LookSmart delivers gloomy results
18 January 2005
Former search giant Look Smart has reissued investor guidance numbers for the last quarter of 2004.
The company reported lower revenues than expected and admitted it had overestimated potential revenues by about $2 million and underestimated quarterly losses by about $700,000.
LookSmart has failed to combat the meteoric rise of rival Google and has been hampered by poor management of sales assets and sluggish advertiser demand.
The San Francisco-based paid search company projects much lower sales in the quarter, between $16.5 million and $17 million, down from expected revenue of $18 million to $20 million.
Recent figures have suggested that advertisers poured money into search marketing during the festive season and Goldman Sachs this month raised its earnings estimates for Google and Yahoo!
LookSmart lost a key paid inclusion listings deal with Microsoft in October 2003, which accounted for two-thirds of its sales.
The search company also announced a restructuring of operations, dividing it into two divisions; paid listings/syndication and consumer products. Bryan Everett, a former sales executive with 24/7 Real Media, joins the company to lead the paid listings/syndication division, while Deborah Richman, a former Overstock.com executive, joins LookSmart as head of the consumer products division.
The management change comes three months after LookSmart named former 24/7 Real Media boss Dave Hills as chief executive. The company has had three CEOs in the past year.
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