blinkx writes off $32m
November 17, 2015
blinkx has written down its flagship product by more than $30 million, sending shares down 6 per cent. Earlier this year the company rolled together several of its brands into RhythmOne, which offers advertising targeted both mobile and conected devices in an effort to tap into increased use of tablets and smartphones to consume content.
The move was welcomed as the beginning of a revival for the company, which has seen its market value plummet from £916 million (€1.3bn) in November 2013 to just over £100m today.
Now the company has posted a half-year loss of $79.3 million, compared with $9.7 million a year earlier, writing down more than $50 million from its businesses. Brian Mukherjee, chief executive, said that some of the lost goodwill was because 10 of its brands had disappeared as a result of the launch of RhythmOne.
Revenues for the six months fell 14 per cent from $106 million a year earlier to $91 milion, but the group said an increasing amount of its business came from sales of “core” products such as mobile. Some 69 per cent of its sales were classed as “core” during the period, compared with less than half a year ago.
blinkx has also cut costs by making more than 100 employees redundant. Over the summer the company issued a profits warning that sent shares down 44 per cent.
The company has suffered for two years since Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, raised questions about how it accounted for its revenues. The company was spun out of Autonomy in 2007.