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ZW Data Action Technologies Inc. (CNET)

Q4 2005 Earnings Call· Wed, Feb 8, 2006

$0.73

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Sheila, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the CNET Networks Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2005 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you like to ask a question during this time simply press “*�? then the “1�? on your telephone keypad, if you like to withdraw your question press the “#�? key. Thank you. Ms. McLaughlin, you may begin your conference.

Cammeron McLaughlin, Director, Investor Relations

Management

Thank you, and good afternoon. Before we begin our formal comments, I would like to remind you that in the financial news announcement released today, and also on this call, CNET Networks is providing specific forward-looking statements, including guidance related to our expectations of future financial performance. Any forward-looking statements made as part of our news today are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual or predicted results to differ materially. These risks are outlined in our fourth quarter and full year 2005 news announcement as well as in company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its 10-K for the year 2004, which can be obtained from the SEC’s website or directly from our Investor Relations website. All information discussed on this call is as of today, February 6, 2006, and CNET Networks undertakes no duty to update this information. Last but not least, you can find a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures that we use in our news release and on this call to GAAP financials, on the last page of today’s news announcement, as well as in the slide presentation that accompanies this call, located at our Investor Relations website, www.ir.cnetnetworks.com. Hosting today’s call are Shelby Bonnie, CNET Networks Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and George Mazzotta, our Chief Financial Officer. Neil Ashe, Executive Vice President, will also be available during the question-and-answer session. Now let me turn the call to Shelby. Tucows Inc. (AMEX: TCX) is the largest Internet services provider for hosting companies and ISPs. Through 7,000 partners globally we provide millions of email boxes and manage over five million domains. Tucows remains one of the most popular download sites on the Internet. :

Tucows Inc. makes the Internet easier and more effective by reducing business complexity for our B2B and B2C customers as they acquire and deliver services to millions of Internet users around the world.

Management

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Management

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Shelby W. Bonnie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Management

Thanks Cammeron, and thanks everyone for joining us. Our fourth quarter and full year 2005 results demonstrate our continued ability to deliver consistent, solid financial performance, and at the same time significant growth and expansion in our overall product offering, customer base and audience. 2005 was a good year for CNET Networks. We delivered 26% growth in interactive revenue, posted EBITDA margins of nearly 20% and increased cash flow generation. At the same time, we continued to expand our offerings both domestically and internationally with new products, partnerships and acquisitions. We ended the year with an excellent fourth quarter, demonstrating our ability to continue to drive revenue growth through our combined efforts of extending our relationships with in-category advertisers and gaining more share of budget from consumer advertisers as well. We are pleased with what we have accomplished. We were focused on growth and excellence in 2005, and this was apparent in our products, customer growth, user metrics, and ultimately in our financial performance. In addition to the financial results there were three areas of strength in 2005. First, we significantly grew the size of our audience and their usage of our properties. Second, we continued to expand our content categories and add more brands to the network, further delivering on our strategy of a multi-category, multi-brand media organization. And third, we expanded our in-category and out-of-category advertiser base across the network. Let me quickly review some highlights of the solid financial performance during the fourth quarter. Total revenues were 107.4 million in the fourth quarter, up 20% from the fourth quarter of 2004. Interactive revenue was up 25% from the fourth quarter of 2004 to 100.2 million. Our strong topline growth and minimal operating expense growth drove better than expected profit trends. Operating income before depreciation, amortization and asset…

George E. Mazzotta, Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thank you, Shelby. We are very pleased to report continued growth across all key financial and operating metrics during the fourth quarter. We generated 107.4 million of total revenue in the fourth quarter, which was 20% above last year. Total revenue was driven primarily by strong growth and interactive revenue offset by a year-over-year decline in publishing revenue, supporting our total revenue growth is a stable and expanding advertiser base. Across the entire network, our 100 largest customers represented 55% of total revenue, which is similar to previous quarters. We continue to experience a very high renewal rate from our top advertisers. In fact 100% of our top 100 advertisers in the third quarter renewed with us in the fourth quarter. Our interactive revenue for the fourth quarter was 100.2 million, which was 25% above last year. Our growth in interactive revenue reflects a 28% growth in marketing services revenue, and a 5% increase in licensing fee and user revenue. The growth in marketing services revenue reflects our ability to gain market share and extend our customer base in both existing and new categories. Our marketing services revenue was driven by growth across all businesses, including Games and Entertainment, Personal Technology, Business and Webshots. We continue to experience growth from existing advertising clients as we gain further share of their marketing budgets. While still a small portion of total revenue, we are encouraged by our ability to successfully expand our advertiser base into more consumer-focused categories as we enter 2006. The 5% growth in licensing fee and user revenue was primarily driven by our CNET Channel data licensing business. Underlying our interactive revenue performance during the fourth quarter and throughout all of 2005 was a strong growth in user and usage metrics. Monthly unique users increased 13% year-over-year in the…

Shelby W. Bonnie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Management

Thanks, George. 2005 was a good year for CNET Networks. It was also a year where the industry experienced good growth and momentum, and I believe that the unique position that CNET Networks fits in within the media landscape has become even more evident throughout 2005. Before getting into the specifics of 2005 and a look forward to 2006, I thought I might provide some thoughts on what we are seeing in the overall media world. Media is going, is seeing an enormous amount of change, due to the advances in consumer technology and thus a new set of consumer expectations, media is experiencing tremendous change as it evolves and moves rapidly towards a more digital and interactive world. This change will affect all media companies including ourselves, and will also dramatically change advertising as we know it. As much as we all talked about 10 years ago, the convergence and digitization of media, it is now actually happening and if anything we’ll probably go faster than we expect. There are two things that are driving it. The first is the empowerment by technology, where resources like the Internet, especially high-speed bandwidth, abundant storage and faster processors are becoming more affordable and mainstream. This has put the consumer in a unique place of control. Second and probably more important is the change in consumer expectations that have come from these advances. A consumer today believes that they can get or learn whatever they – when they want, how they want. It is now just taken as given that I can find anything, it will be timely and relevant and at my fingertips. This is TiVo, these are great websites, this is digital music and iPod. This is online communities, instant messenger and lots of other great examples. And it is…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question please press “*�? then the number “1�? on your telephone keypad. We ask that you limit questions to one question per caller. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Thank you. Your first question comes from Safa Rashtchy.

Q - Safa Rashtchy

Analyst

Good afternoon and thank you for providing granularity and some details on your revenue components. In that regard, could you tell us, if you could clarify, I kind of missed the numbers you gave for the growth you expect in the interactive component of your revenue. And I believe it was sub 20% and how we should look at that given the growth that you had this year and the addition of new properties and from web TV and other areas? I would expect that you might be seeing some acceleration. I am not sure if I quite saw that in the numbers you gave? Thank you.

A - George Mazzotta

Analyst

Well, to recap what was said in the prepared remarks, we expect that our remaining publishing business will generate about $11 million of revenue this year. And so our overall revenue estimates would translate this to our expectations for interactive revenues to be up 19 to 22% this year or in the range of $385 million to $395 million.

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

I think if you look from a color standpoint, we still think the market is looking very attractive. I think as we said at the end of the second quarter call, as we thought about 2006 back then, we kind of looked at a number overall of kind of a 20% revenue growth rate and the guidance we are providing is consistent with that. I think we still continue to see opportunities early in the year, but I think we remain very encouraged when you look at this relative to what other mediums are seeing and as an example, what we saw in the print side of our business. I think the opportunities remain very attractive for the overall online space and we continue to really focus on how do we make sure that we are building both properties and an organization sales staff relationships so that we can have very long-term sustained attractive growth rates going forward.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Anthony Noto of Goldman Sachs.

Q - Jennifer Connelly

Analyst

Hi, this is actually Jennifer Connelly in for Anthony. He apologizes for not being on the call, we had two today so…

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

We miss him terribly.

Q - Jennifer Connelly

Analyst

I’ll let him know. A question on RPMs, we saw that they increased for the first time in several quarters, in the fourth quarter you’re up 6% year-on-year. Would you attribute this primarily to lapping of the Webshots acquisition or are there other issues at play that we should be aware of, primarily do you expect RPM to continue to increase year-on-year going forward?

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

I think, as we’ve said, we really don’t think of, we don’t manage to RPM, we really manage kind with the overall focus on how do we continue to grow usage, one. And how do we continue to grow revenue. And really look at RPM as a function of that. I think if you look at the page growth and kind of the inclusion of the Webshots number on a full quarter basis. I think what you saw overall is, we had a quarter where we actually grew revenues slightly faster than we grew pages, and so you saw an increase in RPM. But I would say, overall, as we can continue to grow pages and make acquisitions that we think are intelligent or launch new properties like we did with TV.com, we will do that and that clearly will have an impact on RPM. But we’re really playing this in terms of how do we grow the long-term revenue capacity of our business to the greatest extent possible.

Q - Jennifer Connelly

Analyst

Okay. And to that, just can you talk further to specific brands that you see as potential extension of CNET’s current offering?

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

Well, I think we mentioned on the formal comments, one of the interesting things that happened this quarter is the CNET branded properties made up less than 50% of revenues. And so, I think what you’re seeing is a dramatic transformation in our business as we’ve added brands and new properties. You’ve seen especially growth in the Games and Entertainment area. I would also point out this year, on a lot of these calls we get on and we talk about the business area and how the business area has been a real drag. I think we see, we saw some stronger growth, not kind of on par with the rest of our business, but we saw stronger growth out of the business category. And I think we feel very encouraged as to what those overall properties are doing and kind of, that there is some opportunity in that category. So I think we have ended up with a stable of really attractive authentic brands. We will continue to look to add more of them as we see opportunity to do that.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Gordon Hodge of Thomas Weisel Partners.

Q - Gordon Hodge

Analyst

Yeah, good afternoon. You alluded to, I think relying less on ad networks perhaps in 2006 as you focus on direct sales. I was just wondering if you could give us a sense for what percentage of your inventory you sold through ad networks versus direct in 2005, just to get a sense?

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

So that was only on Webshots, and if you remember when we made the acquisition, its primary revenue stream really was coming from the ad networks. I think, if you looked at over 2005, I think we probably have seen that we really need a dedicated sales staff. We’ve staffed up that group within 2005. I think we have got, there are some very good signs as they’ve solidified the positioning and story that they tell around it. I think there are some good signs, and so it’s still, you know, it’s still primarily sold by the ad networks. But we think there will be opportunity and more opportunity for us to do some more interesting things, as we go in and redesign the site and make it more attractive from both the user and marketer standpoint.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Mark Mahaney of Citigroup.

Q - Mark Mahaney

Analyst

Great, thank you. There was, there have been several reports about strong demand for premium ad inventory. That’s clearly, CNET would fall into that camp. How have your strategies for handling that, maybe excess demand or strong demand for premium ad inventory changed overtime? Thank you.

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

Well, I think that is absolutely the case. I mean, one of the things we have done well and I think we have been known for is, we have very good strong brands and they are brands that are sold as a premium. I think we have been able to build very attractive environment not only for users but marketers, a place that marketers can engage. And so, one of the, I think, primary focus areas is, as you know we continue just to look at how do we grow overall usage and continue to expand it. As I think we’ve talked about on prior calls, we are not at this point leaning right now on price as a real lever, as a way to extract more dollars. I think we are, it’s important to us that marketers come in, that marketers have a good experience. That we can service them in a way that we think really give them, kind of honor and respect and make sure they have good experience, because I think that’s the strategy you want to pursue for the long-term, when you look at our, for instance, renewal rates. I mean our renewal rates of our top 100 was 100%. I mean that’s a very attractive number and I think when you look at the out-of-category, the AdAge 100 numbers and the amount of renewal we had on that. So I think that we have done a very good job of servicing that. We continue to focus on how we build more opportunities around that top third of the pyramid where we can have more access to influencers. And we’ll continue to look for ways to both create more inventory, make existing inventory more attractive, and I think in that it’s the right thing to do as we kind of build this business over the long term.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Youssef Squali of Jefferies & Company. Q – Hagit Reindel: Yeah, this is Haqit Reindel for Youssef. I’m wondering if you could talk about international revenues? Growth there seems to decelerate this quarter to about 9% year-over-year, could you talk about what happened there? Thank you.

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

Yeah, absolutely. You know, we talked about in the call, the fact that we are really focused on how do we transform our business. So I think you saw a move like the Computer Shopper move, where we look at kind of the strategic aspects of our business. I think, when you look specifically at International, some of those themes are carrying through in our international properties as well where we are focusing on. And I think have the ability to today to focus on how do we make sure we are getting higher quality revenue, which has higher profitability. And so, I think a lot of the things we are doing in terms of kind of re-thinking asset mix and other things, you see us doing international, and I think that was reflected in the fourth quarter numbers as we kind of shuffled some business. And, you know, in fact kind of fired some revenue that we thought was not as profitable, and didn’t have the same growth characteristics as other things.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Brian Fitzgerald of Morgan Stanley.

Q - Brian Fitzgerald

Analyst

Hi. First question and then I have one follow-up is, specifically with the Games and Entertainment area. Are you seeing any renewed growth with the release of new platforms, Xbox 360 and the upcoming Playstation3?

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

I would say overall, we’re in a transition right now, and so you see as you, you’ve seen the launch of the Xbox 360 and you will see the launch of the Playstation3. We are kind of in a transition of game platforms. I think if you look at most of the major game publishers, I think you will see it reflected in their numbers for both the fourth quarter and what they are seeing for the first quarter. So I don’t think it will be surprise if some of that is reflected overall in our Games properties. But I think we remain very encouraged. I don’t think there is any storm clouds on the future with respect to the health of the overall category. We’re just in one of those kind of transitional periods. And so we remain very excited and encouraged in that area. I think that we will see through this transition. I think the good news is that I think when the transition fully kicks in, I think you are going to see a lot of marketing on behalf of game publishers and as they basically market into a, what then would be a new installed base of a new platform.

A - George Mazzotta

Analyst

I think there was a second question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Kit Spring of Stifel Nicolaus.

Q - Kit Spring

Analyst

You probably can’t tell me this, but what is your expense growth year-over-year in first quarter in 2006 when you back out the acquisitions; looks like a little bit higher than what I would have expected. And then maybe could you comment, do you still expect Yahoo! to launch a tech and gadgets type vertical and then finally, could you maybe talk a little bit about what you think the supply of inventory will do as far as the industry in 2006? Does your guidance forecast that there will be a lot of supply coming on to the market as major media companies put video content online? Thanks.

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

To do your first question, we don’t breakout the number in terms of expense growth without acquisitions. But I think if you look at the overall kind of seasonality characteristics of our business, what you’d recognize is in the second half of last year, we went through a period of investment, as we launched new properties and launched new areas. And then you go into a more seasonally weak first quarter, it’s not as if you can let all those people go or kind of decrease the investment. So I think that, you will see that kind of playing out with respect to overall guidance. But I’d say overall we feel very good about kind of where we are with respect to ability to build the business. On the Yahoo! tech launch, my assumption is, and I think the working assumption is, yes they will launch something. This is probably in my history, Tina, maybe the fourth or fifth thing they have launched. So, you know, I get a little weathered on the issue. I do think as we think about our opportunity in the business, you know, we are very, we do something that’s very different in that we really focus on that top third area of the audience, the people that are most passionate about the topic. And we think that’s done uniquely with an authentic brand, with authentic look and feel, and kind of all that stuff. And so, you know, our view has been that the portals do have an opportunity serving the tech category as they have serving other verticals, including games and other things. But what they are going to focus on is more the mass audience. In fact, we are going to partner with them on that. So when you look at Yahoo!’s…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Imran Khan of JP Morgan.

Q - Imran Khan

Analyst

Yes, hi, thank you. Hi Shelby and George. You talked about going beyond the CNET.com website and creating more authentic brands. I was wondering if you can talk about, a little bit about what are you doing to cross pollinate the users from different sites on CNET core websites to other new websites. And secondly if you could talk about, what kind of user response you are getting from the redesigning the site? And third, the last question, on the CapEx side, it seems like the CapEx is growing like, a little higher than what we are expecting. So if you could get, give us some sense what, where you are spending the CapEx, thank you.

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

First of all when we talk about CNET branded properties, remember its not just cnet.com, it is also cnetnews.com and cnetdownload.com. So its really that we refer to it internally as CNET and its what we refer to as kind of CNET brand which is internally everyone calls “The Red Ball�?. We look at lots of opportunities with respect to what things we can do on cross promotion. You will see us use ad inventory, you will see us use smart linking, you will see us do lot of things with respect to how we utilize search within our network. I think on one level you can’t force it. So I think it’s important that in the spirit and philosophy of giving users what they want, you can’t kind of put a round hole in square, or a round peg in a square hole. So we need to find things that are relevant and useful. We need to find ways to create what can be very kind of workable and unique brand experience. You will also see us cross-pollinate content. So for instance between the CNET brand and the GameSpot brand, you’ve seen us take games content from GameSpot and put it within the CNET environment and you’ve seen us take personal technology content from the CNET brands and put it within GameSpot. And I think we are finding a really nice way to augment within a common brand, a common look and feel, some really high value areas. With respect to redesign, I’d say overall we’ve been very pleased about it. I mean the, this is a continual refreshing process. I think if you look at some of the games and entertainment sites, I think they have seen real success in traffic growth. I think they have seen more engagement. I think we have built it up in a way that we are providing an opportunity for users to participate in the community better. So I would say overall it’s been successful. And I think we’ve been relatively pleased with it. But it is a dynamic continual process and in a good way, the bar gets raised a little higher every day and it’s important that we continue to innovate and learn and take advantage of that. So let me, you want to talk quickly to…

A - George Mazzotta

Analyst

Sure. With respect to your question on our capital investment, we believe that our capital investment for 2006 is inline with our growth plans. We think that strategically it compliments our expectations of growth. We expect to increase our investments in our US media properties to support their growth and amplify the growth that we expect from them, and we also expect a little bit larger investment in our US facilities.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Mark May of Needham & Company.

Q - Mark May

Analyst

Thanks for taking my questions. Just trying to reconcile some of the comments that you made in the prepared remarks, talking about how a lot of the growth in the business overall has come from the growth in the audience and the use of the properties. But it looks like for the last few quarters that the unique user number has slowed, so the second derivative growth rate. And then the average page views per unique has been relatively flat for I guess the last four quarters. And then Shelby, I think in response to one of the questions earlier you said, you weren’t going to be leaning on price too much. I am trying to reconcile all these things. Has, are there certain parts of the network that are holding down that overall growth rate and either the uniques slowing or the page views per unique, and am I maybe not looking at those sort of aggregate numbers in the right way? And second question has to do with the licensing and user fees. It looks like they were, that line item was down in the fourth quarter both sequentially and year-over-year, I think for the first time since I have tracked it, both sequentially and year-over-year. Just wondering why that is and what should we expect this year? Thanks.

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

Okay, so to the first point of question, as you heard kind of in our prepared comments. As we look at 2006, we are shifting more towards a focus on kind of user engagement and less so on just raw user growth. And so I think it is correct in saying that as we’ve looked kind over 2005, we saw, we didn’t see the same kind of aggregate increases in overall unique user growth. That was partly by design. I think what we have focused on is how do we attract the highest quality user base, how do we make sure we are addressing the needs of the most passionate, most engaged kind of top third of the audience, and I think you’ll see that over time. I think we feel from a proposition standpoint to marketers, we have lots of reach today. So we’ll continue to kind of lean on how do we make sure that we increase page views per unique, overall engagement, more use of video, and other things. And one of the other interesting aspects is, page views we see as becoming a less important metric. And so how do we think about a mix of kind of page views and video streams and audio streams then, are we, what you see with respect to RSS feeds and other things. There’s a kind of a much larger ecosystem of ways that you touch users. And so, as you see us also shifting towards more use, other types of mediums, I think, you will see, we hope to see more things coming from that. And I would say overall, we feel very comfortable with respect to the kind of overall inventory levels. I mean, if you look at the last three years, we did a great job…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Scott Kessler of Standard & Poor’s.

Q - Scott Kessler

Analyst

Hi thanks very much, I have two questions. My first question involves, if you could provide more details around Computer Shopper, particularly if you could provide any details related to what you would have expected from revenues in 2006. I am also wondering when you expect the transaction to close and perhaps why no details about the specific consideration you will receive. The second question I have involve stock compensation expense; your guidance suggest roughly 23 million in 2006. I am wondering what that number was in 2005 and if you see that trend going down in terms of the amount of that expense on over time. Thanks.

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

So we didn’t breakout in providing guidance for Computer Shopper magazine for ‘06. What we did do is we provided the number for 2005, so it is about 16 million in revenue, about 1.8 million in EBITDA in ‘05. It’s I think, I would say in the big scheme of things, it’s not a particularly material transaction for us. I think this is one we look at as strategically as to how do we continue to kind of have higher quality properties that really are core to our goal of being kind of leading interactive content company. And so, Computer Shopper was a nice, for a period of time a really nice asset to help get leverage and do more things within the overall interactive stage. But, I think as we’ve said over and over, at the point we didn’t think it was strategic, was the point for us to get rid of it. So I’d say, in a big of scheme of things, not material. It is in fact closed, because that, so it closed on 2/2. So that transaction is done. I will let George speak to the stock compensation question.

A - George Mazzotta

Analyst

The guidance that we provide on stock option expense compares to about roughly $20 million of expense this year. But it’s important to understand that the valuation of that stock option expense in 2005 will differ from 2006 in the sense that we will use a different valuation model. The valuation model that we have developed with the partnership of Duff & Phelps is that we’ll utilize the Black-Scholes model, but we will modify it to use a term that’s calculated by a Duff & Phelps model, Binomial Lattice model. This model has not been vetted yet with our auditors, but we expect that it will by the middle of February. So, two different valuation methods, but our guidance for 2006 is inline with our 2005 and previous year’s stock option grants.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Bill Morrison of JMP Securities.

Q - William Morrison

Analyst

Hi. I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the CapEx. And, George, you said that it’s inline with how you want to grow the business this year. I guess I’m wondering, it was significantly higher than I was expecting as well, as a percent of revenue at least compared to last year. And just kind of curious if, how should we be thinking of that number in forward years beyond this year? Should we be thinking that it will grow as a percent of revenue or there will be some leverage in that number? And then, I guess, along those same lines, I was hoping you might be able to talk about your goals for growing free cash flow for the company over the next few years? Thanks.

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

So, first just from a context standpoint, it’s kind of one of those good news, bad news as we’ve really focused on kind of growing user and usage standpoint, and we also look at ways in terms of how do we create kind of better redundancy and other things, kind of, of services. You go, you tend to go in more kind of a step function notion. And this is a big year as we look at what things we can do with respect to kind of expanding redundancy and other things within our properties, which benefit also from an ability to kind of lower risk, one but also in terms of creating higher better performing properties. So, I think, this is a bit of a kind of a step function year overall and I think, remains kind of very consistent with kind of where we are, kind of a, it is a growth phase of our business.

A - George Mazzotta

Analyst

And I just want to, probably repeat what I said previously about our CapEx expenditure through ‘06. We will not provide specific guidance about this but I do want to emphasize that we believe strategically it’s inline with our growth plan. It is single digits as compared to the investment over revenue and probably what you have going on also is the law of small numbers, is that last year the 25 million was on a smaller base of revenue than it will be, our 2006 guidance will be, on 2006 revenue.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, our final question comes from Paul Keung of CIBC.

Q - Paul Keung

Analyst

Good afternoon Shelby, George, and Cammeron. Question about your recent success to I guess diversify revenues and improve asset mix. I think you mentioned that CNET’s profit is less than 50% of total revenues for the first time. Where do you see that mix headed in ‘06 and specifically how big can Games and Entertainment and Business category get in ‘06? And the second question is for Shelby, I guess in the last couple of calls, Shelby you used the Ford example and it sounds like a key challenge for you and for Ford to figure how to spend this, this really dramatic increase in online spend. And I think a number of times you have mentioned that the spending is based on some good work being done on the cross media platform, how to spend it. So my question to you really is as it relates Ford and to yourself, do you think that their strategies and research there can now figure out how to spend that money or is that, or is the challenge there such that your guidance is really right around, where your long-term target is, 20% or so?

A - Shelby Bonnie

Analyst

First of all, we don’t, with respect to your first question; we don’t breakout the individual kind of business units. What I would say is that Games and Entertainment, I guess as we’ve said on prior calls, has been our fastest growing of our individual units. I think that we, that scenario where we’re continue to see a lot of attractiveness. I think TV.com can be a very good asset for us. We also think there are some additional things we can do overall within the entertainment category. So, I think it’s a place that encourages. But I think, additionally, BNET can be more important. I would also add, as we said in our prepared remarks that we think that there is significant ability to do new categories. And that if I was to liken this to the cable industry, I would say, kind of 1988 cable industry, you kind of went through the first stage, where you thought a bunch of the kind of mainstay basic cable channels had been launched. But then it turned out, from kind of 88, probably next 10 years there has tended to be a great proliferation of some of what are the most valuable, some really valuable assets and some assets extensions that existed. So our plan is not only to grow the stuff we have, but you should also look at how do we reinvest in our business to make sure that we are both adding new brands. That investment could come through more focus on launches. That investment can also come through focus on acquisitions, and I think we will look for the most efficient ways to use our capital, either income statement or balance sheet, to build what we think is the best returning asset mix going forward. I think…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We have reached the allotted time for questions. Ms. McLaughlin, do you have any closing remarks?

Cammeron McLaughlin, Director of Investor Relations

Analyst

No, I think we are all set.

Shelby W. Bonnie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Management

Good. Well, we’d like to thank people and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Take care.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect. Tucows Inc. (AMEX: TCX) is the largest Internet services provider for hosting companies and ISPs. Through 7,000 partners globally we provide millions of email boxes and manage over five million domains. Tucows remains one of the most popular download sites on the Internet. : Tucows Inc. (AMEX: TCX) is the largest Internet services provider for hosting companies and ISPs. Through 7,000 partners globally we provide millions of email boxes and manage over five million domains. Tucows remains one of the most popular download sites on the Internet. :

Tucows Inc. makes the Internet easier and more effective by reducing business complexity for our B2B and B2C customers as they acquire and deliver services to millions of Internet users around the world.

Management

Tucows Inc. makes the Internet easier and more effective by reducing business complexity for our B2B and B2C customers as they acquire and deliver services to millions of Internet users around the world.

Management

View our SEC filings, news releases, and learn more about our company and services.

Management

View our SEC filings, news releases, and learn more about our company and services.

Management

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Analyst