Home-Shopping Channel To Be ShopNBC

MINNEAPOLIS -- ValueVision International Inc. said its fiscal fourth-quarter results will miss expecations and that first-quarter and fiscal 2002 earnings won't meet analysts' estimates either. Separately, the cable and satellite-broadcasting company that runs home-shopping channel ValueVision, announced that the channel and related Web site will be renamed ShopNBC inJune. ValueVision and NBC reached a deal in November which allows ValueVision world-wide use of an NBC-branded name and its Peacock symbol. NBC and GE Equity, units ofGeneral Electric Co. (GE), each own 20% of ValueVision. Excluding a $4.6 million, or six cents a share, charge related to Montgomery Ward & Co.'s bankruptcy, ValueVison (VVTV) expects earnings of six cents to seven cents a diluted share in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 on revenue of $107 million. The mean estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial was for earnings of 11 cents a share. A year earlier, the company earned $12.7 million, or 10 cents a share, on sales of $87.3 million. Chief Financial Officer Dick Barnes said in a prepared statement that sales and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, were short of the company's forecasts primarily because of "a high level of post-holiday returns and a weaker-than-expected January. We believe this reflects a degree of economic anxiety among consumers, which we hope will be short-term." Before the charge -- which included unpaid advertising time, credit-card-application processing fees and a $1.5 million write-off of a restructured agreement in 1997 with Montgomery Ward -- ValueVision expects Ebitda to be $7 million, 87% higher than a year earlier. The company plans to release its fourth-quarter results March 22. At 4 p.m. EST on the Nasdaq Stock Market, shares of ValueVision were off six cents at $13.75. In after-hours trading, the stock was down to $12, according to Reuters Instinet. ValueVision is now forecasting earnings in the fiscal first quarter, which ends April 30, to be two cents to three cents a share below the year earlier's seven cents a share. Sales should climb 24% to 28% to $106 million to $110 million. The First Call estimate was for earnings of nine cents a share. Mr. Barnes said the company has "conservatively planned" the quarter "around an assumption that consumer spending, due to economic uncertainty, will remain somewhat restrainedin the short-term." ValueVision is expecting fiscal 2002 revenue to climb 28% to 36% to $495 million to $525 million. The company said growth will be driven by full-time access in more home and increases in Internet sales. Earnings are slated to come in between 27 cents and 34 cents a share. The First Call estimate was 48 cents a share. In its prepared statement, the company noted that the ValueVision network was available full-time in 6.3 million more homes than in the previous quarter, putting the total at 34.2 million households. ValueVision expects that number to increase to at least 37 million by the end of fiscal 2002. Copyright (c) 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Home-Shopping Channel To Be ShopNBC

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