The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

2. It Takes iVillage to Issue a Form 8-K

Speaking of problematic journalism, get a load of the statement that female-focused Internet publisher iVillage (IVIL Quote) filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

It seems that in this past Monday's edition of The Delaney Report -- a weekly newsletter targeted at advertising and media executives -- iVillage CEO Douglas W. McCormick was quoted as saying, "We lost $30 million in 2001, but broke even in 2002 and consider that a tremendous accomplishment."

One little problem, apparently. iVillage hadn't yet reported its 2002 financial results, and doesn't expect to report them until Feb. 12. Thus, one might think that the lucky subscribers to the Delaney Report were enjoying a sneak preview of a type allowed rarely, if ever, in the world of publicly traded companies.

No such luck, of course. McCormick "had been misquoted and his remarks taken out of context," says iVillage.

McCormick's comments, says iVillage, "generally referred to the fact that iVillage had reported a loss of approximately $31.9 million on an Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization ("EBITDA") basis (pro forma as if the June 2001 acquisition of Women.com Networks, Inc. had occurred on January 1, 2001) in fiscal year 2001, excluding certain one-time and non-cash charges, and that, through the first three quarters of fiscal year 2002, iVillage reported an EBITDA loss of approximately $0.4 million, excluding certain one-time, restructuring and non-cash charges. For the same periods, iVillage reported a net loss of approximately $48.5 million and $26.5 million, respectively. For more details regarding these financial results, please refer to iVillage's Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001, Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2002, and its respective press releases announcing its financial results for those periods."

Yes, time period confusion aside, we're sure that McCormick didn't say something as simple as, "We lost $30 million in 2001, but broke even in 2002."