Earnings season: Helio down again

We’ve said before that earnings season kind of annoys us. The quarterly reports dominate the news, yet most of it means little to us unless we have a stake in the company. However, we’ve come to realize that earnings are a signal of a company’s strength at a given time. Under that definition, Helio is looking rather weak. They’re down again, to the tune of $92.3 million. The gross losses were much larger, as the company was able to cover $51.7 million of it with quarterly revenue. Still, the MVNO has a long way to go to sustainability.

One of Helio’s backers, Earthlink, didn’t do so well itself, losing $79.4 million during the quarter. This includes a $41.9 million write-down related to Helio, though we admittedly have no idea what a write-down is. Presumably, it means money with which they funded Helio. It also incurred a $54.8 million restructuring charge.

Earthlink was careful with the statement made to investors. Here’s CFO Kevin Dotts:

“Combined, the restructuring and Helio announcements materially alter the risk profile and potential returns to EarthLink shareholders. While EarthLink is participating in some potentially attractive growth opportunities, the company is no longer investing significant amounts of current operating cash.”

We’re not exactly sure what Mr. Dotts is saying here, but it’s basically in the vein of, “you can see that we didn’t do so hot in the third quarter, but trust us, we’re working to grow and adapt to the current market.”

There were no specific talks of divestment of Helio, though one has to think that the subject has been discussed among Earthlink execs.
[mocoNews.net]