A Closer Look at Tradedoubler’s Search Business
Posted on January 30, 2009
Filed Under sem agencies | Comments
Right now I’m very interested to see how search is holding up in the current financial mire (see my previous post on Google UK’s 2008 performance and Efficient Frontier’s Q4 report). Tradedoubler’s Q4 2008 financial results came out yesterday and as they are a listed company there is a fair bit of disclosure. In particular they break out search numbers from their total performance.
As Tradedoubler is listed on the Swedish stock exchange, they report in Krona. Currently 1 SEK is worth about 8.5 pence. Here’s the data table I’ve pieced together in both SEK and GBP:
| Q4 07 | Q1 08 | Q2 08 | Q3 08 | Q4 08 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEK (millions) | Gross Profit | 20.1 | 24.4 | 19.6 | 20.5 | 17.5 |
| Margin | 6.8% | 6.5% | 6.3% | 9.8% | 10.1% | |
| Revenue | 295.6 | 375.4 | 311.1 | 209.2 | 173.3 | |
| EBITDA | n/a | 5.8 | 3.4 | 3.6 | -0.7 | |
| GBP (millions) | Gross Profit | 1.5 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.4 |
| Margin | 6.8% | 6.5% | 6.3% | 9.8% | 10.1% | |
| Revenue | 22.5 | 30.2 | 26.4 | 17.5 | 14.2 | |
| EBITDA | n/a | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | -0.1 | |
| FX rate | 0.076245 | 0.08057 | 0.084715 | 0.08387 | 0.081835 | |
For the exchange rate I’ve used mid-market quarterly averages supplied by Oanda.com.
I’m no financial analyst, but this isn’t a pretty picture. Revenues (i.e. billings) in Q4 were down 41% year-on-year, and it looks like costs haven’t shrunk in line which is why EBITDA has dipped into the red. It will be interesting to see what impact the removal of Google kickbacks has when the Q1 2009 report comes out in April.
Looks like 2009 is going to be a tough year for search.
Agree or disagree with this post, or have something interesting to add? Then leave a comment below!
