Tag - Website

Bidz.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDZ) shares are declining after the online auctioneer jewelry reported after Thursday’s close that CEO Dave Zinberg terminated his 10b5-1 trading plan. The Culver City, Calif.-based company’s board reinstated his yearly salary of $290,000 and made Zinberg eligible for an annual bonus, effective March 1. Zinberg’s plan was originally implemented during the summer of 2007, after the chief executive reduced his annual salary to $1 with no stock option grants.

After Thursday’s close, Bidz.com reported fourth-quarter earnings of $8.2 million, or $0.29 per share, up from $1 million, or $0.04 per share, a year earlier. The results met Wall Street analysts’ expectation of earning $0.29 per share.

Quarterly revenue rose to $63.2 million, up 68% from $37.6 million during the year-ago period. Analysts, on average, projected revenue of $63 million.

Going forward, Bidz.com expects first-quarter revenue of between $59 million and $61 million with earnings in the range of $0.14 to $0.16 per share. Wall Street expects earnings of $0.15 per share on $60.8 million in revenue.

Handheld Entertainment Inc. (Nasdaq: ZVUE) shares are soaring after the firm announced before the opening that it was named the fastest growing Web property by comScore Media Matrix for August. ComScore reported that Handheld had the largest percentage increase in unique visitors—a 327% boost—between July and August of all Web properties.

Handheld had 1.5 million unique visitors in July and 6.3 million unique visitors in August.

For the first time, comScore measured all of HandHeld’s websites as a single entity.

“We’re thrilled to see comScore measuring ZVUE Networks as a whole, rather than individual websites,” CEO Jeff Oscodar said in a statement. “We also expect to be able to continue this momentum when we close our proposed acquisition of eBaum’s World in mid-October.”

In afternoon trading, ZVUE shares are up 67.63%, or $1.17, at $2.90. Over the last 52 weeks, shares have ranged from $1 to $7.78.

Provider of paid-search services on the Internet Local.com Corp. (Nasdaq: LOCM) continues to lead small-cap percentage gainers Monday, up 57.4% or $3.97, to $10.89, after announcing that it was awarded a patent for a method of responding to directory assistance inquiries using protocols such as voice-enabled and SMS systems.

“They’ve been good about filing patents—they have a portfolio of 20 patents,” said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis. “Both are sizable patents for them.”

The Irvine-C.A. company said its patent covers a system and method for providing businesses with referral advertising opportunities like pay-per-click or pay-per-call using directory assistance and wireless messaging systems.

The model allows businesses to receive search leads on a pay-per-referral basis when their listings are included in a set of search results. These search results are provided to consumers by an enhanced directory assistance inquiry. The results are delivered to customers through operator assisted calls, messaging systems such as SMS, WAP, and automated voice-enabled systems.

“In our view, the burgeoning free 411 marketplace is being underwritten by a variety of advertising supported models,” Local.com CEO Heath Clarke said. “Our patent is directly related to a referral advertising model such as pay-per-click or pay-per-call listings, which are delivered to consumers as a result of an enhanced directory assistance inquiry or local search, where the results can be provided to consumers via many mobile channels, including voice.”

Toronto-based Kaboose, Inc. (TSX: KAB) is North America's largest independent online media company in the kids-and-family market — a sector dominated by giants such as Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) AOL unit and Viacom Inc.’s (NYSE: VIA) Nickelodeon. Solid planning, creative financing, strategic marketing, and sound partnerships have this small-cap standing strong in the face of stiff competition from larger competitors with well-oiled marketing machines.

Founded in 1999, right before the dot-com bust, Kaboose plowed full steam ahead, aggressively snapping up kid-oriented websites. After a round of acquisitions, the small media company conceded it would never win the battle for children's attention on the Internet, so it shifted gears and targeted their moms. Today, the company runs a string of content-related sites that focus on mothers and young families. Visitors to Kaboose's sites can do everything from staying informed of the latest trends and reading product and service reviews to planning birthday parties and family vacations to creating online photo scrapbooks.

With a Web portfolio including popular sites like BabyZone, ParentZone, Birthday in a Box, Two Peas in a Bucket and the recently acquired image-sharing service Bubbleshare, Kaboose's 120,000 pages of content attract 12 million unique visitors a month and its family of sites have more than 2 million registered users (return visitors who can be tracked and cross-promoted)—a fact that has brought advertisers knocking.

"Kaboose is one of only a handful of Canadian companies that is benefiting from the significant shift in advertising spending from traditional media to online media," Ron Shuttleworth of Jennings Capital Inc., said in a recent report.

"As the company scales and solidifies its position as a pre-eminent destination for families, we expect that Kaboose should capture more share of advertising budgets and higher rates," he wrote.

Last year, the advertising dollars poured in: Kaboose revenues swelled 200% to $11.7 million and in the third quarter of last year, the company recorded its first ever profit, $500,000 (a $1-million turnaround from the same period in 2005). All in all, sales have grown more than 1,000% since 2003. And the company has built an impressive list of business partners, including the likes of McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD), Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), DaimlerChrysler AG's (NYSE: DCX) Mercedes-Benz subsidiary, Mattel, Inc. (NYSE: MAT) and M.J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ).