Media house Schibsted Q2 beat forecast, hits out at Google and Facebook (updated)
18/07/2017 09:36
(Adds comments on Google and Facebook)
July 18 (Reuters) - Schibsted ASA SBSTA.OL :
* Q2 EBITDA ex investment phase NOK 880 million ($108.38
million)(Reuters poll NOK 834 million)
* Q2 EBITDA NOK 694 million (Reuters poll NOK 645 million)
* Q2 revenues NOK 4.3 billion (Reuters poll NOK 4.29
billion)
* "Within Online classifieds, we continue to see good
revenue growth combined with operational leverage," CEO Rolv
Erik Ryssdal said in a statement
* "First impression is positive," says Danske Bank Markets
analyst Martin Stenshall, who has a "buy" rating on the stock.
"Management guides investments further planned to be reduced in
H2 2017 and in 2018."
* Outlook: Schibsted keeps guidance of 15-20 percent revenue
growth in online classifieds, its top division, for mid to long
term
* In online classifieds, Schibsted says full-year
investments are expected to go down versus 2016, and the
investments are expected to go down sequentially quarter by
quarter in 2017
* On investments in Technology and Online Product
Development, Schibsted says: "In 2018, we will be able to take
advantage of efficiency effects and reduce duplication of
efforts within product and technology"
* Schibsted CEO: "We think it is unfair that these giants,
Google GOOGL.O and Facebook FB.O , take out big money from
local advertising market without paying tax"
* CEO estimates Facebook's 2016 advertising revenues in
Norway were at 1.4 billion crowns, Google's at 3.3 billion and
Schibsted's at 2.0 billion, of which 1.1 billion is digital
* UK and Australia have already taken actions on the issue,
France lost a case against Google last week
* CEO says it is time for other governments to act
* CEO also says it s looking into if it is impacted by EU's
antitrust ruling against Google for giving priority to itss own
services urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1JO1YY
* CEO says its online service "Prisjakt" ("price hunt") is a
service that could be a competitor to GoogleSource text for
Eikon: ID:nGNEbSclZ5
Further company coverage: SBSTA.OL
($1 = 8.1195 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord, editing by Gwladys Fouche)
((gwladys.fouche@thomsonreuters.com;))
Keywords: SCHIBSTED RESULTS/