Last week I provided a warning about ensuring your yet-to-be-issued earnings releases and other confidential documents are secure on your website. I provided an example from an unnamed company, and this week I want to point to a public example. It appears that companies are being targeted by media outlet web scrapers in advance of public announcements. Once discovered, these news outlets publish the information before companies issue their press releases. The latest example is Disney, where earnings information was covered by news media before the company issued its press release as detailed in this blog. You might argue this is unethical or an invasion of privacy, but IR professionals must ultimately bear the responsibility for ensuring an airtight process including website security. If the news media is doing this, I suspect traders and others are doing the same and will trade on your news in advance of the public announcement.
In many respects, LivePerson‘s CEO Robert LoCascio is at the top of his game. In 2009, as reported by Reuter’s, his company was pulling in close to 90 million dollars a year. Have you ever gone to a website and seen a little chat box pop up with a message along the lines of “Hello, may I help you?” That’s LivePerson’s technology at work. The company, founded in 1995, now has more than 450 employees, with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, San Francisco and Israel. They service over 8,000 companies including Microsoft, Qwest, EarthLink, Hewlett-Packard and Verizon.
But LoCascio wasn’t always running a successful, growing business. In fact, he writes that at the outset of his career he “struggled to survive, to keep food in his mouth and a roof over his head.” Which is why LoCascio, who was born and raised in Long Island, now goes to great lengths to give back to the community that helped him to succeed.
FeedingNYC is a non-profit organization that LoCascio started in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. It’s an annual program that provides Thanksgiving meals to families in need throughout New York City’s five boroughs. Each year FeedingNYC receives hundreds of volunteers to assemble, pack and then hand-deliver meals to the city’s shelters, with a particular emphasis placed on Women in Need and Catholic Charities.
The program started as a simple idea to feed a few local families in need during the 2001 holiday season. By the time the idea reached his friends, family, co-workers and employees, he ended up feeding more than 40 families that first year. Over the past nine years, the program has grown significantly; in 2008, they fed 2,008 families; in 2009, they fed 2,250 families; and tomorrow they will feed 8,000 families in need.
“As an entrepreneur, I am really good at bringing people together to create change. In my business life, I’ve created change by providing a product to the marketplace that helps thousands of businesses around the world connect with their consumers in deeper, more meaningful ways. In my personal life, I am able to create change in my community by bringing people together who have means, with those who are in need. I knew I had the means to help create positive change in people’s lives in those days following the attack, and that was the impetus for FeedingNYC. How has the program been able to achieve such growth you might ask? This is simple – we are all humans and we all have a need to feel connected to something bigger and greater than ourselves. Think about how you feel when you help someone in need – the look of gratitude and appreciation on their face is priceless – it’s magical and addictive and you want to give more – help more.” -Robert LoCascio
FeedingNYC receives help from the Robin Hood Foundation for funding, Flat Rate Moving donates boxes, Wegman’s donates the food and Pier Sixty and Chelsea Piers donate their space for the packing and assembly of the meals.
At a benefit last week, LoCascio told the crowd a story: “One year while out on a delivery, I recall a little boy opening his door as I knocked to deliver the thanksgiving meal to his family. He looked up at me and said, ‘Are you a good person or a bad person?’ I said, ‘I’m a good person. I’m bringing a Thanksgiving meal to your family.’ The boy’s sister then joined him at the door where they began checking out the box of food I had brought with me. About three minutes later, their mother comes running to the door and she started to scream at the kids and me. She seemed so frightened that this stranger was with her kids around a big box. It turns out she was in the bathroom when the kids opened the door. I started to calm her down and told her I was here to just give her a free turkey dinner and that I wanted her to have a great Thanksgiving. She just froze for a second and then threw her arms around me and started to cry. Her emotions of fear instantly turned into joy. She then stepped back and said to me ‘I thought my family was forgotten, but now I realize that people care about us. For the rest of my life, when I get out of this shelter, I will feed a family and pass this great day forward.’”
Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 23, 2010, hundreds of volunteers will converge at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers to pack the dinner then hand deliver them. FeedingNYC is still seeking assistance both in the form of donations and volunteers. To get involved, visit FeedingNYC.
The LivePerson (Nasdaq: LPSN) duo of CEO Robert LoCascio and Chief Financial Officer-President Tim Bixby is about to become a solo act. Bixby announced he will leave the company early next year. He will be replaced.
LoCascio and Bixby helped take the live-chat specialist public 10 years ago, just as the dot-com bubble was bursting. It survived. It has been consistently profitable. It’s growing, as thousands of popular websites now rely on LivePerson’s platform to provide cost-effective support, instantaneously.
Bixby is leaving at a time when the company is rocking. Its stock hit double digits for the first time ever last month.
The third quarter report was solid. Revenue climbed 27% to $28.2 million, and adjusted net income of $0.09 a share was just ahead of the $0.08 a share that analysts were expecting. The stock still opened 4% lower today, as investors appear more concerned about the uncertainty at the top than the company’s otherwise solid fiscal performance.
Wall Street’s reaction is a shame, because it’s a good time to buy into LivePerson.
Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) announced that it would pay a healthy premium to acquire Art Technology Group (Nasdaq: ARTG) earlier this week. That company provides e-commerce solutions, and earlier this year acquired a small LivePerson rival in InstantService. Oracle’s move was enough to send shares of LivePerson and GSI Commerce (Nasdaq: GSIC) higher. You know the drill. When a stock gets snapped up, consolidation buzz lifts the niche higher.
However, LivePerson is an attractive company in its own right. It doesn’t just offer a platform for companies to provide online chat over less efficient email support or call centers. LivePerson has been doing this long enough to make its offering proactive. ValueVision Media’s (Nasdaq: VVTV) ShopNBC.com — one of LivePerson’s accounts — issued a report earlier this year claiming that website visitors who lean on LivePerson’s chat interface convert at a much higher rate and place larger orders than those who do not. Going with LivePerson’s proactive solution generated a 299% return on investment at ShopNBC.
I recommended LivePerson to Rule Breakers subscribers at $6.73 earlier this year. I’m still bullish on the company.
The product works. The growth is obvious. This may also be the only company that routinely posts quarterly updates on YouTube, with LoCascio and Bixby even candidly discussing Bixby’s departure.
It’s the kind of company you want to root for, especially because the financials continue to justify that faith.
“Driven by the continued strong demand for smart phones and other advanced mobile devices, our III-V revenue has increased 50% to $47.1 million through the first nine months of 2010 from $31.5 million for the same period last year as a result of a combination of an expanding market and, we believe, increasing our market share at several of our power amplifier circuit partners during the year,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, the Company’s president and chief executive officer.
Inuvo reported revenue of $14.3 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, a 53% increase from the same quarter last year and a 26% increase over the immediate prior quarter this year. The Company also reported that the technology focused Exchange segment grew 87% in revenue over the same quarter in 2009. For the nine months ended September 30, 2010, the Company’s revenue was 16% higher than the same period last year.
Revenue for the third quarter was $28.2 million, a 27% increase from the third quarter of 2009, and a 7% sequential increase as compared to the second quarter of 2010. Revenue from business operations for the third quarter was $24.6 million, a 29% increase as compared to the third quarter of 2009 and a 7% increase as compared to the second quarter of 2010. Revenue from consumer operations for the third quarter was $3.6 million, a 15% increase as compared to the third quarter of 2009, and a 5% increase as compared to the second quarter of 2010.
PC Mall has reported financial results for the third quarter of 2010. Consolidated net sales for Q3 2010 were $336.1 million, an increase of 20% from $280.3 million in Q3 2009. Consolidated gross profit increased to $43.2 million in Q3 2010 compared to $39.2 million in Q3 2009. Consolidated gross profit margin was 12.9% in Q3 2010 compared to 14.0% in Q3 2009. Consolidated operating profit for Q3 2010 increased 33% to $4.0 million compared to consolidated operating profit of $3.0 million for Q3 2009. Q3 2010 results over Q3 2009 included a $0.7 million increase in depreciation expense and a $0.2 million increase in costs due to an appreciation of the Canadian dollar relative to the United States dollar. The total of these items was $0.9 million. Consolidated net income for Q3 2010 increased 46% to $2.1 million compared to consolidated net income of $1.4 million for Q3 2009. Diluted EPS for Q3 2010 was $0.17 compared to diluted EPS of $0.11 for Q3 2009. Adjusted EBITDA (as defined below) for Q3 2010 increased 43% to $6.9 million from $4.8 million in Q3 2009. Information about our use of non-GAAP financial information is provided below under “Non-GAAP Measures.”
. Net sales for Q3 2010 increased by 53.8% from Q3 2009. Excluding the acquisition of JC Whitney, Q3 2010 net sales increased 24.9% due to a 23.9% increase in online sales and a 38.1% increase in offline sales. The increase in online sales resulted from a 12.6% improvement in conversion, 8.5% growth in unique visitors and a 2.7% increase in revenue capture, partially offset by a 1.7% decline in average order value.
. Gross profit for Q3 2010 increased 42.0% from Q3 2009. Excluding the acquisition of JC Whitney, gross profit was $19.2 million, an increase of 13.6%. Gross margin declined 2.7% to 33.2% of net sales compared with Q3. Excluding the acquisition of JC Whitney, gross margin was 32.7%. Gross margin was unfavorably impacted by increased freight expense of 1.2%, a discontinuation of high margin loyalty programs of 0.8% and 1.0% from a mix shift from body to engine parts.
Revenue for Q3 2010 was $23.1 million, versus $9.7 million for Q3 2009, an increase of 137% from the same quarter in 2009. Revenue for the quarter was up sequentially due to continued sales growth in our current distribution channels and the addition of new distribution channels.
Gross profit for Q3 2010 was $11.6 million, or 50% of sales, compared to $5.2 million, or 54% of sales for Q3 2009, and $7.6 million or 50% of sales for Q2 2010.
Net income for Q3 2010 was $3.9 million or $0.16 per share as compared to net income of $0.9 million or $0.04 per share for Q3 2009, and $1.9 million or $0.08 per share for Q2 2010.
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