iVillage’s Prospects
iVillage is on the blocks for about $560-$700 Million. For those who have not tracked the company, it is a women’s portal that was amongst the first to attack a segmented audience with a “content” business model. Here are the historical financials:
2004 was the first year they made a profit of $2.8 Million on $70 Million revenue. Between 1995 and 2003, they lost $470 Million.
Rupert Murdoch or Barry Diller will probably buy the company, although there are several other potential suiters. iVillage, if it had started today, would have probably made significantly different decisions and exhibited a much better performance track-record than it has shown. However, it is one of the bubble-era companies that survived, and that in itself is worthy of some credit.
iVillage reported revenues in Q4 FY05 of $30.1M a 33% year over year growth. It sports a $580M market cap, seems like the $600-700M price would be about 4.5 times 2006 expected revenues (~$150M), does sound pricey but in today’s Web 2.0 world awash with cash anything can happen. They do have a few things going for them
- in 2005 the company expanded its advetiser base adding Amex and Citibank
- a new subscribtion based product recall alert service
- the iVillage Parenting Network now contributes 13% of revenues a 17% annual growth (Stats:Dow Jones, Barrons)
The portal along with its print publications can fit in well with News Corps existing amalgamation of print, TV and Web properties.