Operator
Operator
Tucows Inc. (TCX)
Q4 2008 Earnings Call· Wed, Mar 18, 2009
$16.34
-1.39%
Same-Day
+0.00%
1 Week
-5.56%
1 Month
-5.56%
vs S&P
-9.93%
Operator
Operator
James McNally
Management
Elliot Noss
Management
Thank you, James. Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us today. On today's call I'll begin with some of the highlights for the fourth quarter and for the year. Mike will then provide a detailed review of our financial results, and I'll close the call with our thoughts for the future. Revenue for the final quarter of 2008 was $19.2 million, an increase of 5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007. That growth in revenue was in line with our overall growth for the year of 5.1%, which resulted in revenue of $78.5 million. Net income for the quarter was just over $1 million bringing the total for the year to $2.1 million. As discussed on the last conference call in November, we have sold our equity stake in Afilias. As a reminder we received $3.2 million in cash in the fourth quarter and are conditionally due the remaining $4.2 million in two installments later this year. For 2008 we generated cash flow from operations of $2.4 million. I will note that cash flow from operations for the fourth quarter was negatively impacted by two factors that were specific to the period. First, the timing of payables resulted in a typically high cash out flow and second, we incurred one-time severance and related costs associated with the reduction in headcount. Let's look at each of our businesses individually. The main registration within our OpenSRS Wholesale business is showing strong momentum. In the fourth quarter, both new and renewal transactions grew compared to the previous year with new registrations up 9% and renewals up 15%. We are seeing these trends accelerate in the early part of this year. The main names under management increased by 18% from a year earlier to $7.7 million. We note that a portion of that…
Mike Cooperman
Management
Thanks, Elliot. Net revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 was $19.2 million, up 5% from $18.2 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. The increase was primarily the result of higher revenues from traditional domain name registration services, which as Elliott discussed earlier, experienced strong growth in both new and renewal transactions compared to the corresponding quarter a year earlier. Cost of revenues before network costs for the fourth quarter increased by 15% or $1.7 million, $12.7 million from $11 million, primarily the result of the higher domain registration volumes we have been experiencing and the impact of the 7% increase in registration fees levied by our main domain name supplies in October of 2007. It should also be noted that the same registries also increased their registration fees by an additional 7% in October this year. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in network costs of $1.4 million, primarily the result of the lower bandwidth, (inaudible) contract and people costs we achieved with the closure and relocation of certain of our call location facilities following the successful completion of the email migration that we have spoken about in previous conference calls as well as the lower depreciation we are now incurring as a result of the retirement of the Oda Hardware that we were deploying at the closed call location facility. Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 25%, compared to 23% for the same quarter last year. This increase is primarily attributable to the reduction in network costs of $1.4 million that I mentioned a moment ago which was partially offset by lower contributions to gross margin from our traditional domain name, email and retail service category. Looking at the gross margin contribution by service category, gross margin from the traditional domain name…
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanks, Mike. We all know how tough it is to be a publicly traded company in these turbulent times. Capital markets are in flux. The venture capital system is broken with virtually no opportunities for exit. Hedge funds are focused on redemptions not making new investments. Furthermore, every small public company not just Tucows faces a similar situation. Traditional investor relations or additional analyst coverage can't help much when you are one of a thousand companies with the same message, your valuation is low. What then is a company with $50 million to $200 million in revenue and $5 million to $20 million in cash flow supposed to do? When you step back and look at the public markets, there are three things that public companies do very well. Firstly, they provide a mechanism by which to reward good people. Finding and keeping the best people is the most important factor in any Company's success. Secondly, they provide investors with liquidity and the ability to move in and out of investment much more easily than with private companies. And thirdly, public markets are efficient at returning capital to shareholders either through buyback when the share price is inexpensive or through dividends. We estimate that we pay a premium of between $250,000 and $500,000 a year to be a public company. When you start to consider the benefits I've just described; attraction and retention of top talent, liquidity for investors and the ability to efficiently return capital it starts to seem like a reasonable expense. All of this of course is predicated on consistently generating cash which we have done in the past, we'll continue to do so in the future. Tucows is fundamentally sound. We have growth opportunities across our business and are predominately high volume low cost transaction models with a high recurring revenue component positions us favorably in this challenging environment. We will be aggressive in returning value to shareholders and to this end this morning we announced the initiation of a modified Dutch auction tender offer to repurchase 4 million of our shares. Shareholders are invited to tender some or all of their shares at a price from $0.32 per share to $0.45 per share representing a fairly significant premium to the market at the opening of today at the close of business on March 9. Based on the number of shares tendered and the prices at which those shares are tendered we will determine the lowest price within the $0.32 to $0.45 per share range that will enable us to purchase up to 4 million shares. In addition, we have the option of purchasing up to 1.5 million more if the number of properly tendered shares are higher and we choose to exercise this option. This is a time for efficient operations, prudent capital markets choices, and a clear sense of direction. We believe we deliver all of these things.I would now like to open the call for questions. Operator?
Operator
Operator
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Hi, Thanos. Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Hi mate. Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets: Okay. But I guess it's kind of hard to say what type of quantities, revenues (inaudible).
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
No, I don't think – it makes no sense to do that. It's a crazy world out there. I think as you and I have talked both on the call and just conversationally, we are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. We're pretty conservative guys. We have been through a nuclear winter before having lived through the dotcom boom and bust, and then the kind of the echo boom and bust in domain registration so we have a pretty good sense of what to do in tough times. We are being pretty conservative. Thanos Moschopoulos – BMO Capital Markets:
Elliot Noss
Management
Thanks Thanos.
Operator
Operator
Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities:
Elliot Noss
Management
Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities:
Elliot Noss
Management
Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities:
Elliot Noss
Management
Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities:
Elliot Noss
Management
Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities:
Elliot Noss
Management
Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities:
Elliot Noss
Management
I think I talked last quarter about '09 being in the $1.5 million to $2 million range, which is kind of down year-on-year and down pretty significantly from '07. Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities: Sure.
Elliot Noss
Management
Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities:
Elliot Noss
Management
Alex Grassino – Laurentian Bank Securities:
Elliot Noss
Management
Operator
Operator
Aram Fuchs – Fertilemind Capital: Yes it is Aram Fuchs for Fertilemind Capital.
Elliot Noss
Management
Hi Aram. Aram Fuchs – Fertilemind Capital:
Elliot Noss
Management
Aram Fuchs – Fertilemind Capital:
Elliot Noss
Management
Aram Fuchs – Fertilemind Capital:
Elliot Noss
Management
Aram Fuchs – Fertilemind Capital:
Elliot Noss
Management
Aram Fuchs – Fertilemind Capital:
Elliot Noss
Management
Aram Fuchs – Fertilemind Capital:
Elliot Noss
Management
Aram Fuchs – Fertilemind Capital:
Elliot Noss
Management
Operator
Operator
Elliot Noss
Management
Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for participating. Please disconnect your lines.