TheStreet.com Posts Loss, Revenue Drops

Updated from 4:03 p.m.

TheStreet.com Inc.(TSCM Quote), an online financial media company and the publisher of this Web site, swung to a loss in the fiscal first quarter and said revenue declined 26% from the same period a year ago.

For the first quarter ended March 31, total revenue was $14 million, down from $18.9 million in the same quarter of 2008.

TheStreet.com reported a loss of $3.1 million, or 10 cents a share, excluding a noncash impairment charge of $24.1 million, one-time restructuring costs and severance payments totaling $2.4 million, and a valuation allowance for a deferred tax asset of $16.1 million. Including those items, the company lost $45.7 million, or $1.50 a share, in the quarter.

Of the impairment charge, $22.6 million was for goodwill and intangible assets, and $1.5 million was related to writing down a long-term investment.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting a first-quarter loss of 3 cents a share, excluding items, and revenue of $15.4 million.

For the year-earlier quarter, the company had net income of $2.4 million, or 7 cents a share.

TheStreet.com had a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, excluding certain charges and costs, of $600,000 for the quarter, as compared with adjusted EBITDA of $3.9 million for the first quarter of 2008.

Shares in the company were down 5 cents in after-hours trading to $2.15.

"This is clearly a time of great change within the Company," said Daryl Otte, TheStreet.com's interim chief executive officer. "In what was a very challenging quarter for the Company, we successfully managed our cost structure and delivered $4.7 million in free cash flow. We will continue to manage the relationship between revenues and costs, and invest in initiatives that will build shareholder value."