cfarm said:
Do you feel like it should be profitable at this stage? At some stage in the near future? Pick a date or pick an acceptable monthly loss figure.
I don't expect $0 operating loss after 18 months, but $75 million operating loss vs $5 million revenue (3Q) growing to $95 million operating loss vs $5 million revenue (4Q) is not showing growth. (And that is being kind and not including the baloons Cablevision charged off in 4Q.)
The reported operating loss for 2004 was $661 million vs $14 million revenue (including the baloons).
Cablevision doesn't report monthly loss, so I'll go quarterly. I EXPECT that revenue will grow quarter by quarter. Forgetting costs for the moment: Voom went from 5k subs to 25k subs between the end of 1Q and the end of 2Q 2004 - and still pulled of only $4 million in revenue for both quarters combined. 3Q was promising, $5 million in revenue - but they didn't gain the subs! In 4Q they still reported $5 million in revenue. That number NEEDS to increase EVERY QUARTER until they are profitable.
Now back to operating losses: This is a number that should be going down, but I'll accept it as "going down" on a startup if it goes down in ratio in the ratio with revenues.
3Q was $75m loss vs $5m revenue
4Q was $95m loss (for just the quarter expenses) vs $5m revenue
- the ratio went the wrong way -
As I just posted in another thread, I wouldn't mind seeing $180m loss on $20m revenue - that is showing improvement on the revenue side as well as reducing the loss ratio.
Before you throw D* in here note that it is an established business that is spending money to expand services. One quarter's loss, even if a billion more than V*, isn't a trend. V* hasn't shown a winning trend yet.
Losses are secondary when you have revenue. Based on 3Q04, V* needs 95,000 customers to have $20m in revenues. They are not there.
You wanted figures? There you go. I'm looking for:
1) Revenues increasing EVERY quarter, and
2) Loss ratio decreasing EVERY quarter
JL