BEIJING, CHINA, February 6, 2006 – Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: SOHU), China's
leading online media, search and mobile value-added services company, today
reported unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year
ended December 31, 2005.
Business Highlights Highlights For Fourth
Quarter 2005 - Total revenues of US$30.5 million, up 27%
year-on-year and 8% quarter-on-quarter, a record quarter of revenues -
Advertising revenues of US$20.3 million, up 28% year-on-year and 8%
quarter-on-quarter, exceeding company guidance - Non-advertising revenues of
US$10.2 million, exceeding company guidance, with wireless revenues showing
steady improvement up 7% quarter-on-quarter - U.S. GAAP net profit of US$8.9
million or US$0.23 per fully diluted share, exceeding company guidance
Highlights For Fiscal 2005 - Record total revenues of
US$108.3 million, up 5% year-on-year - Advertising revenues increased 27%
year-on-year to US$70.9 million - Fiscal 2005 U.S. GAAP net income of US$29.8
million or US$0.77 per fully diluted share - Operating profit of US$24.8
million with operating profit margin of 23%
Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO of Sohu.com stated, "We had a very good
quarter. We continued to execute on our core business initiatives of growing our
online advertising business and developing our healthy sponsored search segment
following our search product upgrade to Sogou 2.5. Our solid fourth quarter
financial results, which have exceeded company top and bottom line guidance
during a seasonally weak quarter, demonstrate the strength and momentum in our
business. Fiscal 2005 experienced a solid 27% year-on-year increase in
advertising revenues supplemented by our steadily improving wireless
business."
Business Results Revenues for fourth quarter ended
December 31, 2005 totaled US$30.5 million, compared to revenues of US$28.3
million for third quarter ended September 30, 2005, and US$24.1 million for
fourth quarter ended December 31, 2004. Gross margin of 66% in fourth quarter of
2005 was up slightly from 65% in the previous quarter and down slightly from 68%
in the same period of 2004. Net income for fourth quarter of 2005 was US$8.9
million or US$0.23 per fully diluted share. This compares to net income of
US$8.0 million or US$0.21 per fully diluted share for the previous quarter and
US$6.5 million or US$0.17 per fully diluted share for fourth quarter of 2004.
Revenues for fiscal year 2005 totaled US$108.3 million, a 5% year-on-year
increase from fiscal year 2004. Gross margin was 66% in fiscal 2005, down
slightly from 67% in fiscal 2004. U.S. GAAP net income in fiscal 2005 was
US$29.8 million or US$0.77 per fully diluted share compared to net income of
US$35.6 million or US$0.89 per fully diluted share in fiscal 2004.
Sohu's advertising revenues for fourth quarter of 2005 totaled US$20.3
million, a 28% year-on-year improvement and 8% increase quarter-on-quarter.
Advertising revenues, consisting of US$16.9 million in brand advertising and
US$3.4 million in sponsored search, accounted for 67% of total revenues in
fourth quarter of 2005. Advertising gross margin was 74%, relatively stable from
the previous quarter but lower than 81% in fourth quarter of 2004.
In fiscal 2005, Sohu’s advertising revenues totaled US$70.9 million, up 27%
from US$55.7 million in fiscal 2004.
For fourth quarter of 2005, Sohu's non-advertising revenues, which are
derived mainly from wireless value-added services, online games and e-commerce,
increased by 24% year-on-year and 7% quarter-on-quarter to US$10.2 million,
representing 33% of total revenues. The strong year-on-year improvement was a
result of the continued recovery in wireless revenues after bottoming out in the
fourth quarter 2004. Wireless revenues posted its fourth consecutive quarter of
sequential growth, increasing 7% over third quarter and 55% over the same period
last year. Non-advertising gross margin improved to 50% compared to 47% in
previous quarter and 42% in fourth quarter of 2004.
In fiscal 2005, Sohu’s non-advertising revenues totaled US$37.5 million, down
21% from US$47.5 million in fiscal 2004 reflecting the shift in the revenue mix
to favor the core advertising business.
For the fourth quarter, Sohu's operating expenses totaled US$14.2 million,
increasing 25% from previous quarter and 37% year-on-year. The increase in
expenses quarter-on-quarter primarily relates to costs associated with Sohu’s
exclusive Olympics sponsorship role and additional sales commissions payable to
our sales team totaling US$1.4 million pertaining to higher collections as well
as a change in the timing of when the commission is accrued.
For the fourth quarter of 2005, Sohu's other income totaled US$2.4 million.
This included a gain of US$1.2 million arising from our repurchase of
convertible notes with face value of US$15.22 million at a discount. In
addition, due to an exemption regarding payment of certain taxes and receipts of
tax refunds by our China subsidiaries, we have also recorded approximately
US$1.2 million gain of other income.
As of December 31, 2005, Sohu's cash, cash equivalents and investments in
marketable debt securities balance was US$134.1 million, compared to US$132.5
million and US$141.3 million as of September 30, 2005 and December 31, 2004,
respectively. During the year, the Company completed a US$13.8 million stock
repurchase program and the aforementioned repurchase of convertible notes.
Carol Yu, CFO of Sohu.com commented, "Although this is typically a slower
season for advertising, we were still able to post another solid quarter of
results. Our focus on growing our user base and maintaining our leadership
position in online advertising in China continues to work well. We have taken
full advantage of the rapid growth in online advertising in China which we
believe is still in an early growth stage and have taken the necessary steps to
ensure Sohu’s Internet properties are well-positioned to benefit as more
advertisers begin to value the importance of brand and search advertising in
China as an effective tool to reach consumers."
Olympic Sponsorship Update Sohu was chosen as official
Internet Content Sponsor for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in November 2005 and
has already begun providing its exclusive services to construct, operate and
host the official website, www.beijing2008.com, for the upcoming historic event.
“With Sohu's win of the Olympics sponsorship role, we have seen the continued
strengthening of the Sohu brand via our expanding advertising revenue base.
While we expect to see even more Sohu exclusive co-marketing and cross-selling
opportunities come into effect as the Beijing 2008 Olympics approaches, we have
already begun to see increased interest from Fortune 1000 advertisers. In fact,
we have signed Olympic-related deals with well-known companies such as Lenovo
and Audi China during the fourth quarter. Our experienced management team
continues to focus on leveraging our core advertising strength and steadily
growing our dynamic search business as we move closer to the Beijing 2008
Olympics,” concluded Dr. Zhang.
Business Outlook Sohu estimates total revenues for first
quarter 2006 to be between US$28.0 million to US$30.0 million, with advertising
revenues of US$19.0 million to US$20.0 million and non-advertising revenues of
US$9.0 million to US$10.0 million.
Sohu estimates the stock-based compensation expense for the first quarter of
2006, due to the effect of adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting
Standard 123R, Share-Based Payment which requires the expensing of stock-based
compensation expense, to be between US$1.7 million to US$1.8 million. In
addition, starting from January 1, 2006, the applicable PRC income tax rate of
Sohu has increased to 7.5%. Sohu estimates that the PRC income tax expense for
the first quarter of 2006 to be between US$0.5 million to US$0.7 million. The
estimated total impact of these two expenses is expected to reduce Sohu's fully
diluted earnings per share for the first quarter of 2006 by US$0.05 to US$0.06.
After deducting the stock-based compensation expense and PRC income tax
expense mentioned above, Sohu estimates fully diluted earnings per share for the
first quarter of 2006, under US generally accepted accounting principles, to be
between US$0.14 and US$0.16.
Notes to Financial Information Financial information in
this press release is extracted from Sohu's unaudited financial statements
prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the
United States.
In previous periods, the Company had included all its website operating costs
in cost of revenues of brand advertising. Beginning July 1, 2005, in order to
improve the measurement of performance of each segment, the Company began
allocating website operating cost to cost of revenues of each segment based on
actual usage. Accordingly, the Company reclassified cost of revenues amongst
each segment for previous periods presented to conform with current period
classification.
Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains
forward-looking statements. It is currently expected the Business Outlook will
not be updated until release of Sohu's next quarterly earnings announcement;
however, Sohu reserves right to update its Business Outlook at any time for any
reason.
Statements that are not historical facts, including statements
about our beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. These
statements are based on current plans, estimates and projections, and therefore
you should not place undue reliance on them. Forward-looking statements involve
inherent risks and uncertainties. We caution you that a number of important
factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in
any forward-looking statement. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but
are not limited to, the uncertain regulatory landscape in the People's Republic
of China, fluctuations in Sohu’s quarterly operating results, Sohu's historical
and possible future losses and limited operating history, and the company's
reliance on online advertising sales, wireless services (most wireless revenues
are collected from a few mobile telecom operators), online games and e-commerce
for its revenues. Further information regarding these and other risks is
included in Sohu's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2004, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2005,
and other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Conference Call Sohu's management team
will host a conference call at 8:00 PM EST, February 6, 2006 (or 9:00 AM on
February 7, 2006 in Beijing/Hong Kong time zone) following quarterly results
announcement.
To listen to the conference call, please use dial in numbers below: CHINA
A Toll Free Number: +1 0800 744 0091 CHINA B Toll Free Number: +1 0800 440
0091 HONG KONG Toll Number: +852 3002 8537 USA Toll Number: +1 800 218
9073/ +1 303 262 2050 A replay of the call will be available for two weeks
following the call and can be accessed by dialing the numbers below: USA
Toll Number: +1 800 406 7325 International: +1 303 590 3030 PASSCODE:
3460509 The conference call will be available on web cast live and replayed
at: http://corp.sohu.com/conferencecall.shtml
About Sohu.com Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: SOHU) is China's
premier online brand and indispensable to the daily life of millions of Chinese
who use the portal network for their news, search, e-mail, wireless messaging,
instant messaging, browsing, games and shopping. Sohu has built one of the most
comprehensive matrices of Chinese language web properties and proprietary search
engines, consisting of the mass portal and leading online media destination
www.sohu.com; interactive search engine www.sogou.com; #1 online alumni club
www.chinaren.com; #1 games information portal www.17173.com; the top real estate
website www.focus.cn; wireless value-added services provider
www.goodfeel.com.cn; and leading online mapping service provider www.go2map.com.
This network of web properties offers vast Sohu user community very broad
choices regarding information, entertainment, communication and commerce.
Sohu corporate services consist of brand advertising on its matrix of
websites as well as paid listing and bid listing on its in-house developed
search directory and engines. Sohu also offers three types of consumer services.
Sohu offers wireless value-added services such as news, information, ringtone
and picture content sent over mobile phones. The company also operates two
massively multi-player online role-playing games as well as a casual game
platform, and manages an e-commerce platform. Sohu.com, established by Dr.
Charles Zhang, one of China's Internet pioneers, is in its ninth year of
operation.
For further information Jessica Zhang Senior
Manager Sohu.com Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Tel: +86
10 6272 6616 E-mail: ir@contact.sohu.com http://corp.sohu.com
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