|
Sportsline ready to play
|
 |
July 27, 1998: 3:34 p.m. ET
Founder and CEO Mike Levy sees growth in his audience -- and revenue
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Internet has been a gold mine, as many companies connected to the Web have enjoyed a great run in 1998.
Sportsline USA is one of them. It hasn't been a straight line up, but the stock has climbed from $10 at the start of the year to just under $30 Monday.
Sportsline USA (SPLN) bills itself as a sports media company, and has a five-year agreement with CBS.
Mike Levy, founder and CEO of Sportsline USA, appeared on "Business Day" Monday morning to talk about the future of his company.
Here is a partial transcript.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's cover the revenues first. They surged 245 percent, which is fantastic by any measurement. But you're still losing 41 cents a share, not surprising for an Internet company. When do you see yourself profitable?
MIKE LEVY, FOUNDER & CEO, SPORTSLINE USA: Well, our margins are strong, and we think that once we capture enough audience share, we should show some pretty strong numbers. The analysts that follow our company call for us to be cash-flow positive by late next year and profitable in 2000.
DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: You sold some stock back in April for $37 and change a share. The stock is now worth a little under $30 a share. What do you say to the shareholders?
LEVY: Well, I think that all the shareholders that hang with us will do a lot better than I did the first time.
DEFTERIOS: Having come from less than $10 a share, you have to compete against ESPN.com, which has deep pockets with Disney. What's your cash on hand look like? I know you're burning through it because of the effort to build market share.
LEVY: I think we've turned the corner actually on our cash burn. We have over $100 million in cash in the bank. And you know, we actually believe we're better capitalized in the Internet sector than ESPN is. Even though Disney, of course, is huge, we question whether they've got $100 million in their Internet space.
DEFTERIOS: How interesting. And you've also been moving aggressively into retailing. You've bought two golf outlets, which seems to be a wise strategy, except for the time when Callaway and others are reporting some very deep erosion in their market share and sales.
LEVY: Yes, but golf is a great area for retail. In fact, half of our E-commerce revenues are in the golf sector.
MARCHINI: Is retailing more promising as a source of revenue than advertising?
LEVY: We believe that all of our revenue sources are very promising. Advertising will continue to be over half our revenues, with the balance in E-commerce memberships, and actually contents indication as well.
MARCHINI: Talk to me, if you would, about areas where you are going in the future. Of course, golf is becoming an ever-increasingly more popular sport. What else is on the horizon?
LEVY: Well, the big areas for expansion for us are international, where an audience is starting to develop. In fact, 25 percent of our audience is currently international. And through strategic acquisitions.
MARCHINI: Is the interest in extreme sports, you think, overblown by the popular media?
LEVY: We see the big spectator sports as being more popular on the Internet right now, where you have to find out the scores and know the news. We think extreme sports are great. We haven't devoted a lot of attention yet, but we will as time goes on.
DEFTERIOS: It's interesting because you've tied this up to a radio network. But do you think in as short of time, maybe three years, that video stream, when you're actually watching video on your site, is going to be a dominant part of your business?
LEVY: Yes, we do believe that will be the case. Right now, we've got -- at any given time -- we've got about 5,000 video clips on the service right now.
DEFTERIOS: Already 5,000?
LEVY: Yes. We support streaming audio and video, even though most people don't have the equipment to use them properly. We think down the road, though, highlights will be a great part of our business. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
CBS Sportsline
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
