Monster Worldwide 1Q Loss Widens On Lower Revenue; Sales View Weak

   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Monster Worldwide Inc.'s (MWW) first-quarter loss widened as the online job-search company's revenue slid even as bookings picked up.

Shares slid 6.4% to $16.75 in after-hours trading as the company projected a steeper-than-expected drop in current-quarter revenue.

Still, Chairman and Chief Executive Sal Iannuzzi said Monster's underlying fundamentals "turned the corner" and showed solid improvement across geographies and sales channels.

Monster announced in February a deal to buy rival HotJobs from Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) for $225 million, including a three-year traffic agreement between the companies. The deal is expected to add to Monster's adjusted earnings after this year, and would lead to an increase in job matches and search efficiencies, among other things.

Monster posted a loss of $24.2 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $10.3 million, or 9 cents a share. Excluding severance and other charges, the loss was 14 cents. Revenue dropped 15% to $215.3 million, while bookings increased 17% to $219 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated a 15-cent loss on revenue of $213 million.

Deferred revenue at the end of the quarter was $305 million, down 12% from a year earlier and basically unchanged from $306 million at the start of 2010. A sequential increase in the fourth quarter signaled to some that Monster's business had bottomed.

For the second quarter, the company guided for a loss between 2 cents and 6 cents a share on a revenue drop of 2% to 6%. Wall Street projected a 1% revenue drop.

For the year, Monster is looking for a loss of 12 cents to 20 cents on flat revenue, plus or minus 2 percentage points. Analysts forecast a 1% decline.

-By Yogita Patel and Lauren Pollock, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2356; [e-mail]