Mamma.com reports Q4 loss
25 May 2005
Internet search engine operator Mamma.com has reported a loss of $672,000 for the fourth quarter of 2004.
The Montreal-based firm, listed on the Nasdaq, said the quarterly earnings had fallen significantly since the same quarter the previous year, when earnings were $154,000, or two cents per share. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 27 per cent to $3.9 million, boosted by search and advertising network revenue streams.
For the year, Mamma.com reported profits of $1.1 million, or ten cents per share, up from a loss of $211,063, or three cents per share, in 2004. Revenue climbed 77 per cent to $15.8 million from $8.9 million.
Mamma.com also announced that a special independent board committee had concluded an investigation into alleged trading violations of Mamma.com. The committee reportedly found no evidence of a controlling influence on the company by Irving Kott, a Montreal stock promoter who has previously been fined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The search company said the committee, formed after the SEC began a formal investigation of its own, found "some evidence of contacts with, and involvement by, Mr Kott and persons with whom he may have had an association." However, the statement added that, " based on its review, the special committee has not found evidence establishing that Mr. Kott had a controlling influence on the company."
Management has been under a cease-trade order imposed by the Ontario Securities Commission after Mamma.com failed to file its financial statements by the end of March. PricewaterhouseCoopers said in February that it would not act as the company's auditor for the 2004 year until the SEC investigation was over.
Legal and publication costs, the SEC inquiry and the committee investigation all hit company profits hard at the end of 2004 and are likely to continue to do so in the first quarter of 2005, Mamma.com said.
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