Due to advertising struggles. Dow Jones had a low fourth-quarter net profit and predicts the first-quarter to be lower than Wall Street estimates.
Chairman and CEO Peter R. Kann said, “We’re pleased to have increased revenue, profit and margins in the quarter and the year in light of the continuing difficult B2B print advertising environment.”
Dow Jones reorganized its Consumer Electronic Publishing group as a part of the integration efforts associated with its recent acquisition of MarketWatch.
“Dow Jones said it estimates first-quarter 2005 earnings per share before items to range between 12 cents and 15 cents per share, before charges from Weekend Edition and MarketWatch, compared with the 22 cents per share earned in the first quarter of 2004. After dilution from Weekend Edition and MarketWatch, the company forecasts first-quarter 2005 earnings per share in the range of 7 cents to 10 cents per share.”
“As we double the revenues of our Internet operations through the MarketWatch acquisition, we are focused on retaining a flat organization structure that encourages speedy decision-making, as is appropriate in serving these dynamic markets,” said L. Gordon Crovitz, senior vice president of Dow Jones and president of its Electronic Publishing Group. “The merger also provides significant opportunity for cost savings, and this reorganization is the first step in achieving the nearly $12 million in cost savings projected by Dow Jones before the acquisition. The operational cost synergies from combining MarketWatch with Dow Jones will include elimination of royalty fees, the reduction of public company and other overhead costs, and benefits from integrating certain other operations.”
MarketWatch will be integrated with the Dow Jones Consumer Electronic Publishing business, which comprises The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, several free advertising-supported vertical Web sites, licensing of content to Web sites, and The Wall Street Journal Radio Network.
MarketWatch will be maintained as a distinct brand. The product logo, which had been “CBS MarketWatch,” has become “MarketWatch from Dow Jones.” The MarketWatch brand and product range, with about 8 million unique visitors per month, complements The Wall Street Journal Online network, which provides premium business news to about 3 million unique visitors per month. The Online Journal is the largest paid subscription news site on the Web with more than 700,000 paid subscribers.
MarketWatch Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Larry Kramer will serve as a consultant to Dow Jones to support postmerger integration efforts and new-product development projects within Dow Jones Electronic Publishing.
Murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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